Seeing and Sinning

Gospel: John 9: 1-41

It was a common belief in Jesus’ time – a belief that continues to persist in our time – that physical maladies like being born blind was an indication of God’s punishment and a mark on that person that they are a sinner.  In the case of this man in today’s Gospel, we might well beg the question as to what sin a child in the womb could commit that would cause one to be born blind.  Leaving that aside for the moment, the act of physical healing was then thought to indicate that sin was removed from that person’s life.

Enter Jesus, who comes and heals this man on the Sabbath, a forbidden and sinful action.  How is this possible that, in the eyes of the Pharisees, that a sinful action of a sinner in Jesus could heal this man of blindness and remove this man’s sin?  The answer lies in the fact that there is no sin whatsoever in being born bling; it is just something that happens and is not a reflection in any way on a person’s moral status.  What is more, the act of healing on a Sabbath is also not a sin.  An act of charity and mercy can never be sinful. 

The man born blind acknowledged his sinfulness, even though his blindness is in no way related to that reality.  But it is in owning that sinfulness and desiring healing from it that we come to see in a spiritual sense.  The Pharisees could not in any way recognize this fact, for they do not see themselves as blind in either a physical or spiritual sense, i.e. they do not see themselves as sinners.  And therein lies the real blindness and the real sin in the world. 

The great sin, the great blindness lies in our willful failure to recognize that we – all of us, every human being – are guilty of sin and in need of God’s forgiveness and mercy.  Those who claim to see – to have all the answers, to be a “faithful” Christian – are, like the Pharisees, still blind.  The only “faithful” Christian – the one no longer blind - is the one who is ever conscious of their need for God’s mercy and accepting of God’s invitation to show mercy to others through forgiving others and concrete acts of mercy extended to others continually.