15 February 2017
Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel features one of the stranger miracles of either Testament. What makes it odd is not the kind of miracle it is (the blind are given their sight on several occasions in the Gospels). What makes it odd is the process–Jesus tries to restore the man’s sight, and how he sees things are a little off before Jesus tries (and succeeds) the second time. We can only wonder at what the man’s reaction was after the initial healing. Whatever the man may have been feeling, however, he decided to stay with Jesus to be healed.
The man had hope when he first went to Jesus, and he had hope when Jesus healed him a second time. This hope is different from a generic patience or optimism that everything will work out. If it were simply that, after the first miracle, the man could have said “things did work out, but they also didn’t–I still can’t see properly.” His hope was simple: “Jesus will heal me.” That hope kept him by Jesus as he was led out of the village, it kept him by Jesus as he experienced the beginnings of sight, and it kept him by Jesus as his sight was given to him fully. His hope in Jesus took time to be realized, but in the end, it was fulfilled.