Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
EYES TO SEE AGAIN
The deluge ends. God and people are reconciled again. The dove returns with an olive branch in its beak. Noah thanks the Lord.
As a sign that he came to heal – that is, to make whole again – to bring forgiveness and life to the whole person, Jesus restores the sight of the blind, makes the deaf hear again, even raises the dead back to life. He does not only bring good news of hope and healing, he is that Good News, he embodies it in himself and shares it with people in word and deed.
Reading 1 Gn 8:6-13, 20-22
On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship landed on the Ararat mountain range. The water kept going down until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains came into view. After forty days Noah opened the window that he had built into the ship.
He sent out a raven; it flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up. Then he sent a dove to check on the flood conditions, but it couldn’t even find a place to perch—water still covered the Earth. Noah reached out and caught it, brought it back into the ship.
He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again. It came back in the evening with a freshly picked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the flood was about finished.
He waited another seven days and sent the dove out a third time. This time it didn’t come back.
In the six-hundred-first year of Noah’s life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the Earth was completely dry.
Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, “I’ll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I’ll never again kill off everything living as I’ve just done.
For as long as Earth lasts,
planting and harvest, cold and heat,
Summer and winter, day and night
will never stop.”
Gospel Mk 8:22-26
They arrived at Bethsaida. Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him, and asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.” So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty focus. Jesus sent him straight home, telling him, “Don’t enter the village.”
Prayer
Healing God,
each of us too could say:
let me see again,
for I am blind to the love you show me
in the people around me.
Let me see again,
for I am blind to your splendor and beauty
that you reveal to me in your creation
and in the events of life.
Open my eyes to your goodness and mercy
that you display in good people.
May we hear from the lips of your Son:
“your faith has saved you.”
We ask this through Christ, our Lord.
Reflection:
15 February 2022
Mark 8: 22-26
Raising cats and dogs instead of kids is blindness.
The people of Bethsaida brought a blind man to Jesus. Although he did not ask Jesus to heal him, or maybe he did not even ask to be brought to Jesus, Jesus heals him at the request of his friends. But there is a curious description in this healing story. Jesus took his hand and led him outside the village.
Mark has an important message to communicate in writing this. When Jesus touches our hearts, he takes us by hand, leads us to regain our sight, helps us to become conscious of our disillusioned way of living, and encourages us to leave our previous environment and lifestyle and change our behaviour.
There are numerous occasions when the evil around us keeps us blind, and we do not even realise that we need healing. The forces that try to steal our attention from Jesus; that try to steal our dignity; that try to allure us to egoistic desires of power, prestige, pleasure and possessions – all these keep us blind to the mercy of God. Still, the infinite Mercy of God restores and recreates us- physically, psychologically, morally, emotionally, and spiritually ….
The healing of the blind happens gradually. When he begins to see, he begins to have blurred vision. This is exactly how Jesus works in our lives too. He opens our eyes through His Word, little by little: The more we listen to it, the more we meditate on the Words of Jesus, and the more we become conscious of the reality we live in – our vision of the will of God and his plans for us becomes clearer to us – For this, we must allow the Lord to lead us out of the village of our prejudices, misconceptions and comfort zones.
All this process began with a group of friends who brought this blind man to Jesus. This is the same as when we intercede for someone who needs help to be freed from blinding slavery to sin. We have the responsibility of praying for others and helping them to come before the Lord.
It is important to identify those forces that blind us today: The media and their advertisements accuse us of not being beautiful enough, not being rich enough, or not being free and strong enough … if we do not do what is being advertised. They blind us to buying their products. Pope Francis had warned the faithful of their misconceptions about solo living, autonomy and self-sufficiency, which resulted in Catholic couples refusing to have children but raising dogs and cats instead. We are the blind who needs healing today.
There are many Catholics who believe abortion, mercy-killing, wars, genocide etc, are the norm of the day. The world is blind – it stands in need of healing
Raising cats and dogs instead of kids is blindness.– Youtube