The miracle experienced in the Gospel today is interesting in that it happens in stages. Jesus takes a blind man by the hand and leads him outside the village. He first places spittle on his eyes and lays hands on him, by which the blind man can see, but unclearly and imperfectly. Jesus then lays his hands on the man a second time and the man’s sight is completely and perfectly restored. In their respective commentaries, St. Bede and St. Jerome suggest that the step-wise healing of this particular man is not random but instead entails a particular allegorical significance that has to do with the healing of our own spiritual blindness. Both saints suggest that this process occurs gradually over the course of our lives through the evolution of our relationships with God.
Interestingly, this miracle takes place at a pivotal place in Mark’s Gospel in which the disciples are still in the process of overcoming their own spiritual blindness and figuring out who Jesus really is. After all, it is only after this incident that Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ. The context of this Gospel thus highlights an important essential truth of discipleship that is as relevant for us as it was for the original apostles: that the development of faith and spiritual insight is a gradual process that takes time. Faith is never a one-and-done proposition. We don’t lack it one day and possess it in complete perfection the next. Like any other deep, authentic relationship, our personal prayer lives and relationships with God take root, develop, deepen, and strengthen over time. And just like any other relationship, we get out of the relationship what we put into it. After all, how can you have a deeply intimate relationship with a person you never spend quality time with? Recognizing this, it’s important that we do our best to make space for some quiet one-on-one time with our Lord each and every day.