Posted by The WORD in other words (2021) By Fr. Fr. Emil Lim, SVD (Saint Jude Catholic School, Manila)
Friday 1st Week of Advent
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
An old Tagalog saying states: “Wala ng sasahol pa sa bulag kaysa sa nagbubulag-bulagan”? (Pretending blindness is worse than being blind.) How true this is in an age of trolls, fake news, relativized truth, and alternate reality! As the camera of our smartphone gets clearer, the vision of humanity gets dimmer.
The two blind men following Jesus in the gospel might have been deprived of the sense of sight, but they surely were blessed with the sense of faith. They acclaimed with certainty, “Son of David, have pity on us!” while the people surrounding them were still oblivious of the Messiah among them. Who were blind here?
Jesus, knowing the difference and always surprised by such profession of faith, wanted to confirm, and so He asked, “Do you BELIEVE that I can do this?” It might be a headliner of the miraculous healing of the two blind men, but the significance is on the confirmation of faith, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
Advent is the season of hope, the strong and certain vision that God fulfills His promises – the Lord will come! And faith is the precondition of hope. The people who wait in the desert and who walk in darkness will SEE a great light.
No, I am not referring to the Israelites of the Old Testament before the first coming of Jesus. I am thinking of us now before the second coming of Jesus. Are we not still lost in our wasteland and suffering many forms of darkness?
“We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). It would do us good to add this to our advent prayer: “Son of David, have pity on us!”
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