Augustine Sokolovski
The Sunday of the Blind Man is the sixth Sunday of the Easter season. It is the last Sunday between Easter and the Ascension. In the liturgical sense, Easter ends. Next Thursday, the Church is already celebrating the Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven.
Why was the Ascension necessary? Why didn't Jesus remain here on earth with his disciples? After all, He could remain on earth, He could appear to those who believe in Him, He could help and heal. But Jesus did not do this because He came to save all humanity. The Ascension glorified Him and made Him visible and accessible to the entire universe and to all people.
The Ascension is a great celebration. The Church prepares believers for the Ascension on all Easter Sundays.
The main theme of Blind Man's Sunday is the reading from the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John. Let's note immediately that the entire chapter is devoted to the healing of a man born blind.
The Gospel of John has twenty-one chapters. It turns out that one-twentieth of this Gospel is the story of the blind man's healing. Statistics are the god of modern man. Thus, approximately five percent of the fourth Gospel is the account of this healing.
How can we properly understand this text? First, we must activate the audiobook format and listen to it one, two, three, ten times in a row from beginning to end. The Holy Scriptures must literally permeate our ears and our thoughts; they must resonate within us, as intrusive but meaningless music often resonates. Very often, things that don't make sense can teach us to learn from things that do.
The story of the healing of the man born blind recreates the trial of the Lord Jesus, organized by the religious leaders of Israel, in collaboration and with the help of Herod and Pilate. Jesus was crucified by the sentence of the Senate and People of Rome. But it was the Israelites who handed Jesus over to the executioners. The story of the healing of the man born blind is a prophecy of what would soon happen to the Lord Himself.
From the Gospel, we remember that Jesus' brothers did not believe in him, that the leaders of the people said that he healed by the power of the "prince of demons." They claimed that those who believed in him were endangering the safety of God's people against the power of the Roman Empire and the power of the pagans. All this sounds like modern language, but it is stated in the text of the Gospel itself. Like Jesus, who is accused of healing on the Sabbath, the man born blind is accused of having been healed by a man who did not respect the Sabbath. His parents disown him, and he is eventually expelled from the synagogue.
But prophecy is never a complete match. The man born blind is only a man. Jesus is the God-man and the Messiah. Jesus did many good deeds. He proved by his actions and words that he is the Son of Man and the Son of God, that is, the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the nations. For this, Jesus is brought to trial and condemned to crucifixion.
The man born blind was healed by Jesus. He did not know Jesus, but he had already participated in his work. He had become a partaker of His Mystery. This is why he is being judged. He withstood the test; he did not deny Jesus. This is why, in the end, Jesus himself appeared to him and gave him the gift of faith. The man born blind not only received physical sight but also joined the ranks of the saved. "I believe in the communion of saints," as the Apostles' Creed says.
"His disciples asked him, 'Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God might be revealed in him,'" the Gospel tells us (John 9:3-4). Jesus carried out God's work on the man born blind. Because Jesus Himself is the astonishing work of God, He is the marvelous and magnificent work of God. Jesus is the Son of God who entered human history, who became man, as the Creed says, conceived by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary for our sake, and for our salvation.
The price of all his healings and all his good deeds is the Cross. Jesus didn't simply "invent" new eyes for someone born blind. He gave him his own eyes.
"Then the man born blind said, 'Lord, I believe.' And he worshipped him," this Sunday's Gospel ends (John 9:38). With these same words and with prostration before Christ as King and God, the Orthodox sacrament of Baptism begins. This happens to each of us, as it happens to every believer. It happens in Baptism, in the Holy Mysteries, from birth to death, in the spiritual life. It will finally be fulfilled at the general resurrection and the Second Coming of Jesus.