Thursday

February 16, 2012

Today's gospel reading from St Mark brings us into an area of his writing that is essential to his message both about Jesus and his disciples.  We need to see well beyond  the healing account of a blind man by Jesus.  There is in this particular part of the evangelist's writings content that we should not miss.  It is rather simple but, like any matters of our faith, we can easily read over the story and facts and fail to recognize the question Jesus puts before all human kind.  Are we like the man in need of healing?  Do we have eyes but fail to see Jesus at work in others we meet, work with or share a roof with?

In Mark's gospel the disciples only gradually come to understand who Jesus is and the powers that he possesses.  Most likely your understanding of Jesus, like mind, is truly a work in process -- so gradual that most likely few of us will ever finally understand Jesus as we might like or should.

However, we must do whatever it demands of us to present the slow, gradual process of discovering Jesus from being the cause of a typical human complacency in our spiritual growth.  If we allow this to happen, we face the reality that our spiritual life could die at the worst or, at the least, be impeded.  Surely this is what most of us would not want but we have to be aware of this challenge because our society and events in our own lives sometimes prevent Jesus' being able to open our eyes all the way for us.  The reality is that there continues to be the need for healing of heart and eyes for many today.