As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.’ John 9:1-3

I have written several reflections on this gospel story in my blog. I have been doing this for ten years. Therefore, it is important to go back and check to make sure that I am not repeating myself. They say old people tend to repeat themselves. I don’t consider myself old but I am getting older. I want to make sure that I am not acting old. Some of you might understand. I have noticed in my previous reflections that I always focused on the healing. It is hard to do anything else besides this. After all, it seems to be the main thrust of the whole story. However, this time I noticed the overwhelming number of questions in this story. The whole episode begins and ends with them. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to just reflect on this aspect.

It started with the disciples. They asked an important question which has been asked in different manners; “Who is to be blamed for all the injustice in this world?” Whenever something bad happens in the streets, the first thing our children do is to try to be figure out who is responsible. Most of the time, the blame falls on the victim. As cruel as it sounds, we find comfort in blaming the victim not because we are callous or unsympathetic. To the contrary, deep down in our souls, we identify with the victims. Therefore, we want to differentiate ourselves from them so that we can convince ourselves with the fiction that no mishaps nor dangers will befall us. Victim blaming gives us a false sense of security that we can protect ourselves from the troubles of this world if we toe the line. The disciples wanted to know why the blind man was different from them. Jesus gave them an answer to look beyond the problem. It may not be a satisfactory answer for many. Superficially, it may seem like Jesus is blaming God for making anyone suffer. However, this is far from the truth. He is inviting us to not look at people who suffer as a problem but He invites us to discover the mystery of who God is through their suffering.

If blindness was the problem, then the healing did nothing to solve it. In fact, it made it worse. Hitherto the blind man was considered a person to be pitied but now he became a subject of controversy and disdain to the religious authorities. His family even refused to take his side for fear of reprisal. The religious authority now considered him as a threat to their opposition against Jesus. Apart from this, this man also lost his identity among the people. He was known as the blind beggar. Now, the people no longer recognized him as such. The opening of his eyes revealed that the rest of society had a very limited vision of him. They just saw a blind man and nothing more. It could even be argued that they would have liked it if he remained as such. They found it disturbing that he was now healed. We see this in our reality. Often times, we see people give to help the homeless. Churches will come in droves to serve a meal. However, the thousands of people living in the streets is a social problem. No one appears to be interested in dealing these issues. Sometimes they are against measures that might deal with it. In reality, most people are not interested in healing the social disease. They are just interested in doing things which bring them some sort of personal gratification. However, the gospel is a message of healing.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? Matthew 7:21-22

Personally, I think that the Pharisees were right in questioning the blind man. I don’t believe that we have the monopoly of religious charlatans in our age. False prophets were abundant in ancient times too and it was necessary to examine whoever claimed anything in the name of God. I believe that we could benefit by following in the footsteps of the Pharisees in this matter. The Truth is given to us but it should not be assumed that everyone who claims to speak the Truth is from God. The problem was that the Pharisees were only interested in opposing Jesus. They questioned the blind man to mount up arguments against Jesus. This is the problem and not questioning. Those of us of the Protestant tradition cannot forego the value of questioning. Our tradition comes into existence because a monk questioned the church’s doctrines on indulgence. We can never discern the truth from the abundant lies in the world if we do not question. The disciples discovered illness is not a curse from God by questioning the popular notion that physical illness and disability were a curse due to one’s sin. The American Civil Movement wouldn’t have been possible if no one had challenged and questioned what was considered as social norms. We can never recognize the Truth if we do not question what is presented before us. Unfortunately, the Pharisees were not interested in discovering the Truth. They were blinded by their hatred. This is the problem.

Questioning in itself is not going to bring about wisdom. We need to be open to receiving it. We have to be spiritually open in order for questions to guide us into the path of discovering the Truth. Sometimes spiritual openness might happen intentionally and sometimes it might be something which happens without one realizing it. A friend of mine became a Christian because he questioned certain philosophical concepts while doing his Master’s in Philosophy. His questions led him to discover deep truths which his soul was seeking.

When our questions leads us to the Truth, we will be grasped by it in an undeniable manner. It will transform our lives. However, nothing of this sort will happen if we are not open to it. Besides this, we cannot control where it comes from. The Pharisees were not interested in this. They did not feel a need to receive anything from anyone, much less a formerly blind beggar. Consequently, they remained in their own blindness.

They answered him, ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’ And they drove him out. John 9:34

Every day we pass by a group of street preachers who are always yelling even when the things they say should be spoken in a calm and loving manner. I usually just ignore them. This time, I decided that I should put in practice what I just wrote. I should not discard them just because I disagree with their methods. I listened. They did not say anything that was not true. Maybe one or two things were exaggerated for dramatic effect. Besides these, nothing was polemical. However, it did not move me nor hold my interest. I moved on. We met someone from our past; a person who worked with the homeless before. He spouted out heaps of compliments which were full of good intentions but they did not move us. Then some of the children who are third generation homeless children came up to us. These are really young children, most of them under five. They were with their grandmother. Usually, we prefer the company of the older children and teens. We can actually talk with them. These children have limited conversational skills which consist of random words and puzzled looks. We thought and hoped that they would lose interest in us and move on to something more exciting. Instead, they stayed with us for the whole period we were in the streets. Even though we were more keen to talk to the others, these children did captivate our hearts. They smiled when I saw them trying to color the pictures. They did a disastrous job but they didn’t care. They wanted to do it in our presence. It would be easy to just overlook this moment and it would have been a mistake. These tiny children were giving us a gift. They were showing us that our presence has not gone unnoticed in their lives. They could have been with anyone in the streets. There were others closer to their age group and most likely more fun. They chose us because they were spiritually available. They saw something different and responded in doing something creative with us. They wanted to produce something together with us.

These children helped me see in a concrete manner what happens in our souls when we are confronted with the Truth. It makes us creative; not necessarily in an artistic manner. More so in the way of doing something which creates bonds of eternal love. Being spiritual available is looking for opportunities to create fruits of love in this world. It is not just about questions but it is about discovering how to produce true fruits of love in this world. It is good thing we did not disregard these tiny children this week.