5th
Trinity August
Luke
18, 35-43
It happened as he approached
Jericho: a certain blind man was sitting by the road begging. Hearing the crowd
going by, he wanted to know what was happening, and they told him Jesus of
Nazareth was passing by. He cried out in a loud voice: “Jesus, Son of David,
have mercy on me!”
Those
leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the
louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus
stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I
should do for you?”
He
said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”
And
Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the
power for healing has been awakened in you.” ( your faith has healed you)
In that
moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of
the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.
5th August Trinity
Luke 18: 35-43
Christ came to heal the world; for humankind is suffering
the ill effects of its separation from God. At the same time, God has a deep
respect for our freedom.
The blind man in today’s reading asks persistently for
Christ’s compassion. Yet even though the man’s need is obvious, Jesus asks him
what he wants Jesus to do for him. The man’s answer—that I may look up and see
again—is mysteriously formulated. He doesn’t say, ‘Give me back my sight’; nor
“that I look around and see again”, but ‘that I look up and see’. There
is some hint that the man wants not only to have his vision returned, but that
he intends to elevate his vision.
And Jesus’ answer is equally mysterious: ‘through your
trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.’ The power has awakened
in him for his own healing, and perhaps for the healing of others as well. It
doesn’t just come from outside. It comes from his having invited the
Christ-power to enter body and soul. At that moment he looks up, he
sees—Christ, the activator of healing for all mankind. And he rises up and
follows Him.
We too suffer from blindness, the blindness of the everyday.
We too can ask that our vision be elevated.
In the Act of Consecration of Man, the communion service, we
hear Christ’s voice in the Gospel. We ask for the healing of the sickness of
sin; we look up and see Christ as He appears, clothed in bread and wine. He
brings us Himself as the healing medicine for the sickness that has come from
our separation from the divine realms. Seeing Him, we can take Him in, walk
with Him, follow Him.
May you awaken to the mystery of
being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the
temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement
when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your
gift and find the courage to follow its path.[1]
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