5th Trinity
Luke 18:35-43
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| Julia Stankova |
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.)
At 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 Trinity
August 23, 2020
Luke 18:35-43
Light itself is invisible. Light only reveals itself in its
working with darkness. In permeating the darkness, light creates color. Color
is a manifestation of the creative work, the deeds of light.
The blind man in today’s reading wants to look up and see
again. He asks the one who calls himself the Light of the World to be merciful
to him, to interact with his darkness, so that together they may create. We can
imagine that already the man’s courage to ask, his refusal to be silenced, has an
inner color we could picture as a strong red. He has the clear green hope of
healing. Christ verifies that a deep level of trust lives in him, which we might
see as a deep blue. Indeed, the Light of the World is already working in him.
Christ’s proximity already works to create the inner colors that light up in
the soul’s darkness.
Though we may be blind to him, Christ is always near.
We
hear his words whenever we hear the gospels, whenever we listen to the
inspirations of conscience. The light of his presence works with us to create
the inner colors of the soul – the blue of trust, the red of courage, the green
of hope. For the light shines in the darkness, and although we may not grasp
it, we can receive it, bear it, gestate it, so that the soul gives birth to the
Light’s colors. We can invite God to enter us, to work in us.
In the words of John O’Donohue:
… when we come to search for God,
Let us first be robed in night,
Put on the mind of morning
To feel the rush of light
Spread slowly inside
The color and stillness
Of
a found word.*
*John O’Donohue, “For Light”, in To Bless
the Space Between Us.
