Isaiah 29:17-24 / Matthew 9:27-31
Isaiah
talks about messianic times: Then the eyes of the blind will see.
Bob Evans had been blind since birth. When he was 50 years old, an operation gave him eyesight for the first time in his life. Suddenly his world changed beyond belief. He said in a Chicago Sun-Times interview: “It’s the most amazing thing in the world. ... I can’t wait to get up each day to see what I can see. . . .“And at night I look at the stars. . . . Everything is a constant high. You could never know how wonderful everything is.” This story gives us an insight into Isaiah’s prophecy in today’s reading, about how life will be changed for people when the Messiah comes.
Do we see the next life as a life beyond
anything we ever dreamed of?
Do we see the next life as a life beyond
anything we ever dreamed of?
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“What no one ever saw or heard, what no
one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who
love him 1 Cor 2:9
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In this
season of hope, Advent, the word of God gives us a vision of hope. The mighty
who rely on their own political power and alliances will be crushed, but the
poor, the deaf, the blind, that is, those who still believe in God’s presence
and action in the world, will see salvation. So promises Isaiah in the name of
God.
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It is
often said that actions speak louder than words, and we will certainly affirm
that. Action expresses priorities and action changes things. So, in the end,
well done is better than well said. But
most of the time, after all that is said and done, more often than not, more is
said than done. Words may inspire, but action creates change. So, as we
talk, so we must act; as we say, so we must show; as we promise, so we must
prove. For the two blind men in the
gospel, we may not think much about them shouting after Jesus to take pity on
them. In fact, it seems that Jesus did not respond until after they had
followed Him all the way to the house. Just what made them act with such
perseverance and determination? It is said that what will get us to act comes
from one or even all of these reasons: fear, pain, joy and hope. The two blind men could have acted out of
pain and hope. They know the pain of blindness, but they could also
"see" that there can be some hope in Jesus. And so what about us? Why do we keep coming
to Church and seeking Jesus? Well, it could be out of pain, or fear, or out of
joy and hope. For those of us who have the pain of a physical illness or
disease, we seek out Jesus for healing or at least to have the strength to bear
the pain. Physical pain there will be, and we can cope with the help of
medication. What is more difficult is the pain of fear. So, what is this pain
of fear? It is as how the 1st reading
puts it - those who gossip to incriminate others, those who try to trip the
arbitrator and get the upright man's case dismissed for groundless reasons. Oh yes, there are such people, we know who
they are, and they are indeed our fear and our pain. Oh yes we will complain
about them, but after all the complaining, what is the next course of action? Certainly,
we don't want to be like them, and we will pray that God will spare us from
such malicious people. Yet we have
also come to Jesus with a heart of hope. Again, as the 1st reading puts it -
the lowly will rejoice, the poor will exult, for tyrants shall be no more, and
scoffers vanish. Such must be our hope
in Jesus as we take refuge in His Sacred Heart. And more than that, Jesus wants
us to experience the joy of seeing others repent and turn to God. And that's why we come for the 1st Friday
Mass and Devotion to the Sacred Heart. We do reparation for our sins and we do
expiation for the sins of others for their conversion, because their salvation
is our concern and Jesus wants no one to be lost. Yes, we act desperately out of pain or
fear, but we must also act with conviction out of hope and with joy. So we are here to pray, it is our act of
faith, and may Jesus take our prayers into His Sacred Heart, so that we can see
the hope and joy even in the midst of pain and fear.
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When we celebrate
the Eucharist, we profess our faith that God, in fact, begins the fulfillment
of this promise in Jesus. He restores the eyesight of the blind because they
believe. God has committed himself to the world through Jesus Christ.
Opening
Prayer
Lord our God, you are our light and our help; notwithstanding our limitations and all our ambiguities, we place all our hope in you. We know that we are weak, yet that our weakness can be constructive. We realize that sin is not dead in us, yet that sinners can serve you. We are mortal, yet we can live with death as a dimension of life, but not as a final obstacle. God, help us to live with these realities in faith and hope, in Jesus Christ our Lord.
