Sermon 136B

Sermon 136

From the Gospel according to John, Chapter 9:
On the Illumination of the Man Born Blind

He washes his face in Christ who is baptized in Christ.

Whoever has heard the name of Christ and believed and not yet been baptized, you have anointed eyes. Wash and see, for this blind man, when he had been anointed, was sent to the pool of Siloam, which is interpreted: 'sent.' Who is sent, if not Christ from the Father? Therefore, he washes his face in Christ who is baptized in Christ. However, what happened to his body had not yet happened to his heart. For all things are arranged in their own steps. It happened to his heart then when he recognized and adored the Son of God. But when he still thought he was a prophet, he had his heart's eyes anointed in a way and had not yet seen. When the Lord said to him: Do you believe in the Son of God? so that you might know that he had not yet seen, he thus answered: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And the Lord said: You have seen him and it is he who speaks with you; you have seen him with the eyes of the flesh, see also with the eyes of the heart. When did he see with the eyes of the heart? When he heard, and believed what he heard.

Christ came into the world as Savior.

When therefore he was acting with somewhat anointed eyes of the heart and was not yet seeing, and thus he spoke, you heard what he said: We know that God does not hear sinners. He would not say this if he saw this light in his heart. For if God did not hear sinners, that tax collector would descend from the temple confused. But he descended justified rather than that Pharisee. Whence did this one descend justified? Because he did what Scripture says: I acknowledged my sin to you, and I covered not my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and you forgave the iniquity of my heart. Therefore, does God not hear sinners? Believe this which the illumined now believe: God hears sinners. For what the Lord said that for judgment He came into this world, that those who do not see might see, and those who see might become blind, can perplex many who do not understand. For the Savior Christ has come. In one place He also said: For the Son of Man has not come to judge the world but that the world through Him might be saved. Therefore, if He came to save, it is acceptable that He said He came that those who do not see might see. But it is hard that those who see might become blind. If we understand, it is not hard but clear. That you may understand how truthfully it was said, refer your eyes to those two who were praying in the temple. The Pharisee saw, the tax collector was blind. What is to "see"? He thought he saw; he gloried in his sight, that is, in his righteousness. But he was blind because he confessed his sins. That one boasted of his merits, this one confessed his sins. The tax collector descended justified rather than that Pharisee because Christ came into the world that those who do not see might see and those who see might become blind. Therefore, when the Pharisees who were listening then said: Are we blind also? They were indeed like the one who ascended into the temple and said to God: I thank you that I am not like other men, unjust, adulterers, robbers, as though saying: I thank you that I am not blind, but I see, as other men of the kind of that tax collector. What did they say: Are we blind also? And the Lord said to them: If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now that you say, We see, your sin remains. He did not say: your sin increases, but: it remains. For it was there. Since you do not confess, it is not taken away, but remains.

God alone performs miracles.

Let the blind therefore come to Christ to be enlightened. For Christ is the light in the world, and among the worst men. Divine miracles have been wrought, and no one has performed miracles from the beginning of the human race except him to whom Scripture says: "He who alone does great wonders." Why is it said, "he who alone does great wonders," except because when he wishes to perform, he needs no man? However, when a man does it, he needs God. He alone performed miracles. Why? Because God in the Trinity is the Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit, certainly one God who alone does great wonders. The disciples of Christ also performed miracles, but none did so alone. What kind of miracles did they also perform? As it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: the sick desired to touch their fringes, and those touching were healed; the sick wished to be touched by the shadow of those passing by as they lay down. What kind of miracles did they perform, and none of them alone! Hear their Lord: "Without me you can do nothing." Therefore, beloved, let us love the patriarch like a patriarch, the prophet like a prophet, the apostle like an apostle, the martyr like a martyr, yet above all let us love God, and from him alone let us undoubtedly expect to be saved. The prayers of the saints who have earned well of God can help us, yet without any preceding fruit of their merits, since the merits of each saint are the gifts of God. God, who works openly, works secretly, works in visible things, works in hearts. He himself performs his wonders in his temple when he does so in holy men. For all the saints are together fused by the fire of charity and make one temple for God, and individually they are temples and all together one temple.

God prepares the will for faith.

You have noted what was said to holy Elijah: Go to Sarepta in Sidonia, there I have commanded a widow to feed you. For there was a great famine, but it was not great and without any human's ministration to feed his servant. Why was he sent to that woman, and not a raven bringing the prophet food by the command of God? But the raven did not bear fruit of its own. For even though it fed the prophet by the will of God, the raven was not therefore always to reign with Christ. He was sent to the widow for the good of the widow, not Elijah; not because he could not find food elsewhere, but so that she might gain merit before God by feeding the righteous one. Therefore, he came and found her collecting sticks. He asks for and requests food. She replied she did not have what to make bread with, saying she had only enough for herself and her children, and that when they consumed it, they would die. However, before death, what did she say: I am collecting two pieces of wood. When she was collecting two pieces of wood, she was seeking the cross. But should a prophet of God requesting food be excused? Where is the command the Lord had said to Elijah: I have commanded a widow to feed you? If she had the command, she should have recognized him coming and said: Lord, come, eat, for the Lord has already commanded me about you to prepare a place for you and to give from what I do not have so that I may have for you. But she did not say this; you heard what she said: I have only enough for myself and my children to consume and die. And he said: Go and make a small loaf and bring it to me first. For the Lord said that until the rain falls on the earth, neither that flour nor oil will run out. The entire patrimony of the widow was a small amount of flour and a small amount of oil. But not any opulent estate compared to the small jar hanging on a pole: for whatever the estate was, at that time it was thirsty, but that jar did not run out. She immediately believed, went and did, and took on the feeding of the man of God. This is what the Lord had said: I have commanded. What is "I have commanded"? I have prepared the will for faith. Thanks to His mercy, for the will is prepared by the Lord.