Mark 8: 22- 26 Reflection

Gospel, Mark 8:22-26

²² They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man whom they begged him to touch.
²³ He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Then, putting spittle on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked, 'Can you see anything?'
²⁴ The man, who was beginning to see, replied, 'I can see people; they look like trees as they walk around.'
²⁵ Then he laid his hands on the man's eyes again and he saw clearly; he was cured, and he could see everything plainly and distinctly.
²⁶ And Jesus sent him home, saying, 'Do not even go into the village.'

Reflection

Our gospel reading today gives us a strong hint of connection to yesterday’s gospel, the blindness of the disciples. IN today’s gospel, we hear of the unique miracle of Jesus, the healing of the blind man. Jesus’ unique power enables him to create strange things without jeopardizing his mission of preaching the Kingdom. In the gospel, we can see that Jesus’ healing of the blind man helped the disciples recover from their own spiritual blindness. That I guess was the reason why Jesus has to take the blind man outside the village, and be with his disciples to do the healing.

Like the disciples and the man in the gospel, we are also “blind” in many ways. We have been touched, and spittle has been on our eyes and yet blindness still overshadows us most of the time. In the likes of the disciples, Jesus has been with us from the very beginning of our life. Like the disciples, we have surely seen how great God is in our lives. Maybe not in strange and huge ways but I’m sure God showed something so important and wonderful to each of us. Unfortunately, various reasons and situations or even events in life have caused us to remain blind at times. It might be fear, anger, guilt, temptations, human weakness, and politics, to mention a few. Yet, we have to be keen to the actions of Jesus in our live. And we have to take seriously where Jesus is heading us. He is heading us to have clear eyes. The truth is we cannot lead others if we are blind.

For some, they may not be blind yet they only see very dimly. While others still, it is blindness of the truth that they want to bring to people. The court proceedings for the impeachment trial of SC Corona are somehow construed by many as blinding the truth instead of revealing it.

Let our eyes be opened! If at first we see dimly, then maybe we have try and look again. Hopefully, we can then see clearly.