9781644135945

The Easter Cycle
scrutiny successfully, the ceremony of the “opening of the ears” was performed. They were then
given the book of the Gospels, the confession of faith, and the Our Father, all of which remind
us of our own baptism.
“At that time Jesus, passing by, saw a man who was blind from his birth” (Gospel). Born
blind! Eternal night! The beauty of the world is entirely hidden from the blind man. How sad
an affliction! But Christ happens to pass the blind man. He forms a paste out of spittle and
dust, and rubs it into the eyes of the blind man, and commands him, “Go, wash in the pool
of Siloe.” The blind man does as he is told and returns with his vision restored. Spiritually
we are all like the man born blind. Original sin has cast the spell of night over us. We are
blind and deprived of all supernatural light. But Jesus passed us in the way and sent us to
bathe in the pool of the baptismal font, and our spiritual sight was restored to us. A new
world was opened to us, just as a new world was opened to the man born blind. The vision
that was restored to us was the vision of faith, the vision of truth. In the light of faith we gaze
into God’s world of thought, and we begin to think the thoughts of God. We now have the
“light of life” ( Jn 8:12). We can now understand the important issues of life in the light of
God’s eternal wisdom. We are now in a position to understand whence we came, why we
came, and where we are going. We know now with certainty why we dwell in this world,
what we have to do while here, and what will be our destiny when this life is finished. We
were blind, but now through baptism we have been made to see.
“I will pour upon you clean water [baptism]; you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness
[sin]. . . . And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the
stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit in the
midst of you, and I will cause you to walk in My commandments and to keep My judgments
and do them. And you shall dwell in the land [heaven] which I gave to your fathers, and you
shall be My people, and I will be your God” (Epistle). Behold here the new man who has been
cured of his blindness through baptism.
“I am the light of the world” (Gospel). The warm, spring sunshine calls the beautiful plants of
the earth, but it also arouses the poisonous serpents from their hiding places. Jesus heals the
blind man, and wicked and envious men appear at once to condemn Him for His good work.
But the blind man no longer has any fear. With a charming simplicity, complete frankness, and
without respect to persons, he tells truthfully and with gratitude and joy, of the wonderful things
that have happened to him. Do we live continually in grateful remembrance of our baptism?
The Lord gloriously reveals Himself in the cure of the blind man. This miracle is a figure of the
mercy and love of our Lord. The poor blind man gives us an example of faith. He was a beggar,
an outcast from society; and yet he is a hero and a confessor of the faith. He is a teacher and
an apostle for Christ. The Pharisees cast him out of the synagogue because of his adherence
to Christ; they excommunicate him from their church. But he is received with favor by Christ.
“Dost thou believe in the Son of God?” The blind man asks, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe
in Him? And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that speaketh with thee.
And he said: I believe Lord. And falling down he adored Him.”
“Blessed is the nation [the baptized] whose God is the Lord; the people whom He hath
chosen for His inheritance. By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the
power of them by the spirit of His mouth” (Gradual). And this same God has chosen us for
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