The long story of the Man Born Blind is less about the miracle of the Lord restoring the man’s eyesight, and more about the man coming to faith despite tremendous opposition, however the man grows in faith despite that opposition, first from his neighbors who refused to believe that this was the man they had known, then from the Pharisees who argued that Jesus was sinful, then from his parents who were afraid of the Pharisees. The man responded by refuting their arguments, holding on to his faith in Jesus; more than that, growing in his faith in Jesus, and finally, before Jesus saying, “I do believe, Lord,” and worshiped him. The Pharisees went in the opposite direction, becoming more and more determined to discredit Jesus. By the end of the reading, they were the blind ones and the Man Born Blind was the one who could see. What the Man Born Blind experienced as he grew in faith, the opposition he received, is the same as what we experience as we grow in faith. We will always be confronted with those who do not have faith and who want to convince us to give up our faith. At school, at work, in the neighborhood someone may say to you, “You’re Catholic? You don’t really believe all that stuff, do you?” Or they may come out with the old anti-Catholic bigotry such as, “You guys never read the bible,” or “You guys worship Mary making her a goddess,” or make statements about the Eucharist that are so blasphemous that I don’t dare repeat them here. Why? Why do people have such opposition to our faith? Probably for a lot of reasons. One of them might be envy; they wish they could be part of a strong Church group, but instead of coming and joining one, they try to destroy those who do come. Another reason might be intellectual arrogance. There are the people who are so sure of their superior intelligence, that they see all who take a step outside of reason and into faith as being idiotic. Anyways, we are not blind. We can see. We know how happy we are when we are with Jesus. We know where happiness can be found. We are growing in our faith because we want to perfect our vision until we see God face to face in heaven. So my brother, my sister, do not let anyone or anything steal the light from your eyes. Do not allow anti Catholic or anti-Christian or anti-Theist, or immoral people destroy your vision of the Lord. You and I need to put up a fight, a fight for the light that brings happiness. We need to put up a fight with every fiber of our energy against the prince of darkness. We need to fight for Jesus Christ. At the beginning of today’s Gospel Jesus exclaimed, “I am the Light of the World[1].” We pray today that we might allow the Light of Christ to grow within us and glow from us. For it is only our union with Christ that will dispel the darkness of the world • AE
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