“Master, I Want to See!”
(Mk 10:51)
Dear Sisters
and Brothers in Christ,
The Gospel
story of this Sunday tells us how the blind man was healed and able to
see. The question is that how and what
he could see after our Lord had restored his sight.
First, he
saw as he used to before he lost his eye sight.
That was already a big blessing for him to go back to normal life, to
join other people in performing rights and duties in family and society.
That was,
however, not the main goal of the Lord’s healing power granted to the
blind. The Lord restored the man’s eyes
so that he could see as God wanted him to.
He would no longer see his neighbors through the eye glasses of
selfishness, of personal interest, of sinful ambitions, of jealousy and
hatred. He would no longer see his
fellow men and women as mere products of factories to sell for a good
price. He would no longer see the
environment as just an object for his bottomless greed to exploit without any
sense of responsibility.
More
important was that the blind was given back his eye sight so that he could see
as the Lord Himself saw God His Father, all men and women His brothers and
sisters, the world and all things on it signs of the Creator’s loving and
caring heart.
The Gospel
introduces to us our Lord Jesus Christ as the kind and compassionate face of
the merciful God Who made us in His image and all good things on the earth. It was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who was
sent to us sinners as the Lord and Savior, and Whom we can see as described by
the Prophet Isaiah:
Behold, my servant whom I have
chosen,
My beloved in whom I delight;
I shall place my spirit upon him,
And he will proclaim justice to the
Gentiles.
He will not contend or cry out,
Nor anyone hear his voice in the
streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
A smoldering wick he will not quench,
Until he brings justice to victory.
And his name the Gentiles will hope.[1]
This should
also be how we see people and things around us.
They are the image of God, having human dignity and rights just as we
do. This should also be how we treat one
another. We are human persons. We are real people, having an identity card,
having a family, having beautiful dreams.
This should also be how we deal with the earth, our common home, and all
things, the natural resources. We should
know who we are: we are not the master but just servants to serve the intention
of our boss, the Lord God, Who assign us to cultivate and care for the
earth. What we are now doing to the
earth, our living environment, is not right at all. Global warming, pollution of water, of air,
of information, and of all aspects of human life, are evil consequences of our
wrongdoing.
Faced with
all forms of bad news in our society, we feel upset and hopeless. Complaints, criticism, withdrawal from the
world are all we want to do in protest against a wicked humanity. We wish that the Lord would send fire down from
heaven to consume criminals. But this is
by no means the Christian viewpoint on how to deal with human persons no matter
who they are. If we are healed by the
Lord, we should instead see those very sinful people the way Christ saw
them. Not only did He see them, He so
loved them that He laid down His life for them.
He was patient and kind enough to wait for a sinner to go back to
Him.
Only if we
join the blind man in this Sunday’s Gospel in asking for the healing of our
eyes: “Master, I want to see!”
Fr. Francis Nguyen, O.P.
