Fourth Sunday of Lent
Notes
Transcript
Blindness
why like sight?
keep over every sense?
wish to know reality, and it tells us most
if don’t want phy blindness, how much more avoid blind heart + soul?
heaven is likened to sight: seeing Good Himself
beatific vision
for God is our light
Many ways to say that God is light
Truth, light of intellect
Goodness, light of will
Beauty, light of appetites
Being, light of our existing
Words seem to mean the same thing, difference is how we relate
mind
will
appetite
existing
All ways of ascending, the most important way being the will.
to will is to love
To see Him escapes the worst thing: spiritual blindness (true unhappiness)
never shield soul from Goodness
Takes time exposed to light from long darkness
eyes adjust
maybe tears
in same way we take time as it ascends to the light
chance turn away o shield the eyes,
but then might have start all over
maybe wont be there when open eyes again...
Ascent to the True Temple: Jesus Christ.
blind man darkness of eyes and soul
darkness to full light, story of Creation (to make and to lift up to highest glory)
doesnt yet have Christ in heart
Christ cures both his spiritual and physical blindness
begins with creation
as fathers and Jewish tradition, God making man symbolized by ash with spittle of God (clay). Act of God Himself (so revealing identity by this miracle)
remade
washes spit clay thats on his new formed eyes in pool
purifies Him in waters of baptism (enlightenment as Church teaches)
sent to God, sent to temple
in Jewish, pool of Siloam (recently rediscovered in the early 2000s) pool for purifying to begin ascent to Temple so clean to be near God
begins journey
says Jesus was a man
then a prophet sent by God
then Lord (God)
Ascends up to God the Temple, but faces trial
eventually ultimate test is unjustly forced out for defending Truth
in this death, he finds his life and comes to the true Temple.
whole ascent, pharisees trying to block the light
never look at picture, always try to find some way to block their eyes from the light
no way really happened
sabbath day, so flimsy and filmy an obstacle even some of them saw through that
humbled by blind man
claim means born in sin as if they hadnt read Job
Ascent to God, like clay smeared on eyes or full daylight after sleeping
the hardest ones are often ones that humble ourselves, b/c hurt to core
though it can be painful do not cover your eyes to God, who knows how long be there
painful like sun, but unlike heals rather than blinds.
treat God as blinding b/c judge by appearance rather truth:
no more fun
exposing THAT sin will ruin me
rejection by the community b/c loony relig zealot is the worst
only thing truly fear is turning away or blocking the view
grasp at shadowy excuses to block life of virtue from soul’s eye
a brief relief from temporarily blazing fiery brightness for the long slumber of misery of darkness
Notes
me
smeared it ON his eyes, yikes
“God does not see as a mortal, who sees the appearance. The LORD looks into the heart.”
“but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.”
“SO that works of God may be made visible”
exposed to light shows source is not the darkness, so clearer shows God’s light
If man judges by appearance, why doubt Jesus?
pool of siloam, wash there in journey to holy of holies
Hez made the pool by directing waters there underground, saved Jerusalem
stumble about blindly to wash
baptism, so sees
prophet, sent from God, then God
Earthly evils not always a indication of sin
no just reincarnations, no accepting evils as a specific just due
Look how bold direct blind man is. The judeans see with eyes but do not see reality, and one born blind sees the truth
commentators
Heals by earthly flesh but combined with his mouth (like creation and remedy thru crucified flesh)
Man made of siliva clay (Pitre from DSS) + Chrysostom
real blindness vs earthly blindness (Pitre)
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