The Blind Man Becomes an Enlightener of Many – Patriarch Daniel Says

Basilica News Agency – Aurelian Iftimiu – 25/5/2020

Patriarch Daniel focused his sermon on Sunday, May 24, on the way God can work through an invalid person, the blind man who became an enlightener of many, a teacher for us, and a confessor of Christ.

‘Sickness is not always a consequence of sin, but it can also be an opportunity for God’s secret work in the world to strengthen human faith,’ the Patriarch of Romania noted.

‘This healed blind man becomes a teacher to us. A teacher of humility, a teacher of patience,” said the Patriarch, recalling that the person healed by Christ was born blind and begged from infancy.

“He also becomes a teacher of humble faith and a teacher of the brave confession of the divinity of Christ,” the Patriarch continued, noting that the blind man humbly obeyed and fulfilled Jesus’ command to go to the Pool of Siloam and then boldly confessed Christ in front of the Pharisees.

“The blind man becomes the enlightener of many through faith and confession. He contrasts with those who are in spiritual blindness even though they see physically.”

“This wonderful pedagogy of Christ shows us how infirm or sick people can confess His divinity and holiness, while some people who see with their physical eyes refuse to acknowledge God’s presence and work in them.”

Manifestations of spiritual blindness

The Patriarch of Romania said that spiritual blindness is manifested in today’s society in various forms.

“It is about blindness through unbelief. Today, unbelief as the inability of some people to recognize that God is the creator of heaven, earth, and man manifests itself in many ways: atheism or hostility to religion, nihilism, or indifference to religious values, secularization, or diminishing the importance of spiritual life in the lives of believers.”

Patriarch Daniel appreciated that often those who go through suffering become confessors. However, it is not necessary to suffer to thank God:

“People who have gone through suffering and felt God’s help as healing, as relief from pain, as a change of life, and as a pledge of salvation through suffering and repentance, become witnesses to God’s work in the world.”

“Of course, it is good to confess the faith and strengthen ourselves in the faith not only through suffering, but through thanksgiving to God for the bounties we receive from Him and, above all, for the gift of life and the gift of health.”

Be together with those who suffer!

Today’s gospel urges us to be with those who are suffering, with the infirm, with those who have many shortcomings in their lives, His Beatitude explained.

“We see that no one asked Jesus to heal this man born blind, but on his initiative, out of His humble and merciful love, Christ the Lord healed him.”

“That is why we, out of humble and merciful love, must help all those who need our prayer, first of all, our merciful deed, our word of encouragement, our presence with the sick. Through every form of help to those in suffering, we become the hands of the merciful love of Christ. ”

Photography courtesy of the Basilica.ro Archive

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