Homily 7
On the Man Born Blind
By Asterios of Amasea
I. We have just heard the "son of thunder", John, or rather the Holy Spirit, who turned him from a fisherman and craftsman into a writer and preacher of truly divine and high things, to expose to us the miracle of the physical and spiritual restoration of sight of the man born blind.
In the previous chapter he analyzed the many and extended lectures of the Lord, with which He guided the unfaithful and wayward Jewish people to the knowledge of the Father and the Son, removing from their minds the concept of monarchy; He opened the door for them to pass from the traditions of the Law to Grace, leading them smoothly from the Old to the New Testament, as He once brought them from the desert to the rich and fertile land.
But, even though He manifested His own pre-existence in various ways, that is, that He exists eternally and is always in connection with the Father, and He cried out clearly to the deaf: "Before Abraham was born, I am" [Jn. 8:58], they did not perceive the power of these words, nor did they rebuke that which they did not accept with some scientific objection; but instead of words they took stones and while they were still far from the cross, they trained their murderous hands for murder.
He, however, who always preferred long-suffering before the insults and blasphemies of the people, avoided their wrath and vexation; He escaped, however, not in a humble way, but in a divine way; He stood among them, so near that they could reach Him with their hands, but they saw Him not, and while He was touching the enraged, He was not seen.
They had then remained in awe, killing with intent, but without finding a way to satisfy their rage; like inexperienced hunters, who, if they are afraid and chase the game at an unseasonable time, and so the deer finds a way into some forest and escapes secretly, they wander aimlessly in the valley circling the nets without purpose, dragging the dogs with them to no avail.
II. As for me, even if in other ways I am a scoundrel, I have not forgotten that I am a servant and I must rise up against the abusers by supporting my Master. That is why I will call out to the Jews as if they were present today and were seized with rage:
Do you, ungrateful ones, stone the Benefactor? He who once quenched your thirst from a stone? Do you throw stones at the one who legislated your life with the stone tablets? At the chosen and precious stone, of whom Isaiah did prophesy? At the noetic stone that was cut off from the mountain without human hands, as the magnificent Daniel taught you? Do you stone the "cornerstone" that united the walls of the New and Old Testaments?
And if you do not believe, then "God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones" [Matt. 3 9]; that is, to gather to Christ a special people, the uncircumcised Gentiles. Abraham also accepted this promise, when God told him that "in you all the nations will be blessed" [Gal. 3:8]; because God, seeing with His secret foresight the future, gave to the leader of the faith as children all those who were to believe in the future.
Because He foresaw the rebellion of the Jews, but also the stones that would be raised against Him by His pseudonymous children, He had numbered them among the unpreached. And because preaching the truth to them, He did not convince them to revere Him, while He was present, He hid himself, and while He was in front of their eyes, He disappeared, so that with this miracle of His he could make them accept and confess that, indeed, He was the Christ and God that is more ancient than Abraham.
Listen, O ye who are truly blind and foolish! Who is this, but He who stands here among us and yet see not? And who spoke to Moses yet was not seen? He was seen at that time as a fire and bush, both voiceless; yet a voice was heard and words were taught and even the future was foretold. With the use of their mind they were able to recognize the person who was really among them.
III. Thus the foolish Jews falsely reasoned, and our Lord and Savior, like a wise and diligent physician, since the malignancy did not subside with the first intervention, uses another method of treatment. He wants to heal those who were intellectually blind through a physically blind person who happened to be there, who was not blinded by some disease, but had been born that way, because of nature. So, seeing this man, He stood ready to heal him in a way that surpasses human reason and science. For medicine and therapeutics deal with those diseases that appear, when nature has already brought to light a healthy organism, and after a certain period of time they fall ill, however, it does not deal with the treatment of physical damage that has been born together with the person, nor can all diseases that occur later be cured. Mutilated people testify to this, for whom no doctor could restore the deprivation of their limbs.
That is precisely why the disciples, seeing a man who had not tasted of sight, the greatest of all pleasures, and sympathizing with him for his suffering, tried to discover the cause of this affliction; therefore they asked the Lord simply, to find out if from his own sin or the responsibility of his parents he came to life like this.
However, both parts of the question have something to be commended, for he would not be condemned because of his parents, since God does not punish one on behalf of another; nor, of course, did he pay for his own sins, since he was born blind, for no one sins before birth. So the question was not so successful. But let's see how the Truth, our Lord, answered the question. "This malignancy, My disciples," He says, "did not come from sins, but is a foretaste of the future economy, so that he who is considered a common man may act as a superman, and the Creator of all, after the first creation, may find occasion for a new one." Thus, from the partial is confirmed the general and the stiff-necked and wayward people should be convinced to worship Him, instead of stoning Him.
May the eyes that do not see be enlightened, so that the Sun of justice may shine in the souls of the senseless. May this strange thing happen, to have eyes formed for them, so that the rebels will know that the so-called son of Joseph, as a true child of a carpenter, who would be able to fix a broken stool or glue the wood that came off or fix a broken beam, as would be taught by a carpenter father to his son; no one else, apart from the One who has the power over nature from the beginning, could make a human part and indeed the most beautiful, the eyes, which are created by nature in the most careful and complex way.
IV. And if someone wants to carefully investigate the human members, especially in this part of the body, he will find the almighty and diverse wisdom of God, who honored the small area that this member occupies, so elaborately. Because beyond all the others, this member is distinguished by a special grace; and it is inexhaustible and incorporeal, one would say, combining the tender with the solid and the soft with the hard. It is interspersed with various colors; its center is painted black; however, the monochromaticity is broken up by a combination of multi-colored concentric circles that surround it; so that the central part has the deepest color, while the periphery gradually progresses to a lighter shade. These circles are surrounded by a white covering, shiny and bright, which, however, has something to reduce the whiteness, but it looks like crystal clear. The red is at the edge, where the tear flows, to give grace to the white and the black.
Also, it is internally so smooth and transparent and homogeneous in terms of density, that it creates images of the forms that are in front of it and captures like an accurate mirror the characteristics of the interlocutors. That is why the central circle is called the pupil, since a human form is formed in the eye that sees the opposite. Just as it is impossible for the one who looks in a mirror not to see his own characteristics in the material, so also for the one who sees a person face to face it is impossible not to form his image in the eye. So people, as they see each other, become one mirror of the other.
V. A creation worthy of admiration is the eye. This reveals God to me, examining with precision the whole creation, showing the craftsman from the works. This from the visible explains the invisible. With this I knew the sun and learned the adornment of the sky, I painted the beauty of the stars, the existence of the earth, the nature of the sea, the difference of seeds, the variety of plants and the different hues of colors; of the gloom of the darkness and the brilliance of the light, and everything in general that God created, praising them as "very good". Well, if there were no eyes, creation would grow old without anyone seeing it, since no one would see the wisdom and power of God that exists within it.
It is because of this wonderful function of sight that eyes were created from the beginning, so that we may remove our petty thoughts regarding the Lord's God-man existence, expelling from the soul, with this magnificent action, every humble and earthly conception of Him. To learn, also, that the blessed light and beauty of the Godhead was received by an earthen vessel, serving as the lamp serves the light.
But the Lord carries out the healing with His own hands and does not use His word only to act, He who created the whole world with only a command and with two small words He healed the paralyzed man. But He also heals blindness with his mouth and hands and with great care, so that by His actions He can bring true faith to the unbelievers. He spat on the ground and made mud, also using the earth for healing, to show that with that soil from which the whole body was originally created, the missing part is now created. And He mixes it with saliva and thus sticks the dispersed grains, so that they have cohesion, to show us clearly that with the power of His mouth God the Word accomplished everything. Because "by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts" [Ps. 32:6].
VI. But also for another reason He heals with spitting: in order to contribute to the confusion and fear of those who a little later are going to curse Him by spitting on Him. And yet He did not reduce the audacity of the enraged, but He who accomplished all this by spitting endured many hardships. With this first action, He reveals his creative power. And instructing the blind man to wash in the pool of Siloam shows us the salvation through water, which was given to the one sent (Siloam is interpreted as "sent"). Because only then do we truly see, when we come out of the holy water of baptism. Then the light of grace shines on us, when the power of this mystery washes away the impurity and the stains of sins. And all those who are baptized with the commandment of Siloam, see the spiritual light "which gives light to every man coming into the world."
O the miracle and the great action! The man previously blind left the pool, his face adorned with the addition of eyes, seeing the sun clearly. Neighbors and acquaintances were surprised to see the event. They were shocked by the unprecedented way of treatment. The man went around the city seeing, so that everyone could see the unheard of and paradoxical work of the One who was born in Bethlehem, the little baby who was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger. Because this is what made the Jews believe in the Divinity.
VII. O, therefore, you who are foolish and thick-hearted, put in your mind all the people of the ages. Start with Adam and investigate all his posterity. Do you find that this has happened to anyone else? Is there any example of such treatment in the world? But you insist on dragging my Lord away and call Him the son of a carpenter - " Is this not the carpenter’s son?" [Matt. 13:55] – whose brothers and residence you know. List all the humble things, argue, belittle Him, as much as you want. However, if nothing similar has ever been done by man, nor has the world known another incident, then open your eyes and face the truth, criticizing your ignorance. Wash in Siloam so you don't die blind.
From what it appears, they didn't go at all. Neither by words did they want to learn, nor by action taught, nor by miracles did they gain reverence. On the contrary, out of their proud ingratitude they tried in a myriad of ways to make everything disappear and drag it away. But the crime backfired on them. Because the more they disbelieved and tried to overturn the facts with their questions, the more the truth was confirmed. They suffered like the beasts after being wounded by someone, but because the knife had not penetrated deep into their bowels, they were furious at the man, finishing the slaughter on their own.
VIII. Initially they showed their aggressiveness by trying to confirm whether it was the blind man himself or someone else who appeared to them instead. That is why the man clearly reassured them by explaining to them the healing process, that is to say, the medicine for blindness was the clay with which Jesus anointed him, and that when he washed the clay away in the pool, he discovered his sight. The neighbors were curious about this and learned about it, the Pharisees were also investigating it, but they were not convinced.
Second trick with which they tried to distort the facts was their attempt to prove that it was not Christ who healed him. But because the man proclaimed the Savior and with the confession of the proclamation returned the favor by promoting the benefactor, they shut his mouth and with a dizzy mind, because they had nothing left to do, they returned again to the same conversation.
They wonder if he was blind from birth, they seek out the man's parents, and examine everything with exactness, not to ascertain the facts, but to find some occasion to disprove the miracle; and so, by constructing some false theory to overturn the impetuosity of the multitude which believed.
What an excess of wickedness! To fight the truth and to drag through the mud, instead of worshiping, the benefactor; instead of admiring his power, they try to present the facts as insignificant. Be persuaded also by the parents, O Pharisees, that the man was born blind. Run again to the blind man a second and a third time, so that he may reveal to you the wickedness and the scheming that these arguments hide.
But you, when you experience the first disappointment, proceed to the second; when you experience the second, go to the third, and so on. Follow the path of the evil fox. You are surrounded from everywhere with the networks of truth. You cannot deny the miracle, there is no other way out. Despite all this, you do not neglect to complicate the matter in every way, weaving a spider's web with all your art; however, your advice is powerless and useless.
IX. Your disease is ancestral. Similar children of faithless fathers. This is how they also faced the wonders of Egypt. They were saved from paradoxical and hopeless wars and they did not believe in the One who gave salvation. They fed on supernatural food and were more ungrateful than those who starve. They accepted the manna that was sent to them from heaven and they craved the stench of the garlic and onions of Egypt. With a pillar of cloud they were covered by day so as not to suffer from the burning of the sun and with a pillar of light they were illuminated in the night, enjoying another, new luminary besides the moon. And as if they had not been benefited by any divine action, when Moses had gone up to the mountain to be given the law and delayed to return, they sought and found new and non-existent gods. You are indeed heirs of their ingratitude: and you loved not the law, and hate grace. You need a rod, made not of walnut, to be sure, but of iron.
X. You see a man who, although he could see the light's brightness, he is in the dark until his current age. He does not know what creation is and is guided by foreign eyes. Every day he sits in front of the temple revealing his calamity, in order to attract many to charity and he has the whole city as a witness to his malignancy. In a moment you see him being healed and finding his sight, not with a combination of various medicines, nor with the use of surgical instruments, but only with mud from spitting. And how were you not dazzled, how did you not express your surprise, how did you not fall to the ground to worship, out of respect for the divine action, the One who created the eyes from the earth?
On the contrary, you are in danger of bursting with envy and you envy God as a rival, as if you were the creators of the Creator; you envy the God-man as a common man. Read the books of the Old Testament, what was written there to save the people, and what they teach about kings and their history, and accept what they write about everyone. That, for example, Moses almost came to be recognized as God and Elisha was greatly admired, as well as his teacher Elijah, they praised him very much; you honor as angels all the saints of every generation, who received the actions of God and performed the great and famous miracles. Do not question the ancients in anything, nor disbelieve in the narrations of your fathers, although men by nature give less faith to hearing.
However, what happened in your days with his eyes and you saw it with your own eyes, and you can feel it with your fingers and listen with precision to its history, this with such unbelief and ingratitude you maliciously investigate, trampling on the prophecies and trying to deny their fulfillment. After what we now see happening, Isaiah had come to teach us by saying: "Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing" [Is. 35:4-6].
These are not the words of Peter or John, or the words of any new and suspicious persons, so that you disbelieve in the truth. They are words of your own prophecies, of the son of Amos of Tekoa, the child of a prophet who was a prophet, an Israelite by race, and the supreme teacher of the law.
To God therefore be glory, power, honor and worship now and forever and ever. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
