FOOD FOR THE JOURNEY

When reading the Gospel account of the man born blind, I spent time pondering how this passage might be speaking to us today, how we might gain insight and connect somehow to the experience of the blind man.

When we are born into the world, we are all, in a way, born “blind” because we have not lived, not experienced all that life will come to mean as we grow and change and come to new realizations and new understandings and wisdom. 
We realize we are sometimes blind to God’s incredible generosity, blind to the needs of our fellow man, blind to our own faults and shortcomings, blind to the many, many things we take for granted (like the simple act of attending Mass and receiving Eucharist- which I have never been denied in the 78 years of my life!). Now we have come to a new appreciation of life as it was before - we have been given new sight- a new way of knowing how precious is the freedom to express our faith, to be together with others who share our faith, to attend Mass, receive Eucharist, work at ministry in service to all God’s people.
 
When contemplating practical, routine, everyday issues, the things we now miss each day, we are keenly aware of the fact that our lives are different from anything we’ve ever known. We are stifled in many ways, held captive from the life we’ve known and experienced.
 
As Catholics who are facing Holy Week and Easter away from our churches, we will not celebrate the special elements of our faith- those days when we come together  - to walk the difficult way of the cross; to wash each other’s feet; to process together through the church, carrying the light of Christ; to raise our voices to sing the ALLELUIA in joy; to share in the experience, the wonder of those coming fully into the Church; to celebrate with them while experiencing our own joy of the Resurrection.
 
So we live with great hope- that this too shall pass, and perhaps the painful loss of familiar, routine days and the change we are forced to accept will be a source of wisdom, an opportunity to become the change we want in the world - that we will commit to be a bit kinder, a bit more grateful, a bit more concerned about our fellow man. We will truly be a grateful people- praising God for delivering us from this dilemma, restoring us to life. With God, there are always second chances...and thirds...and chances that never end.
 
I’ve always marveled at those persons who were imprisoned because of their faith, cut off from contact with other Christians, temporarily cut off from receiving Eucharist. Yet they remained so confident in their faith, so trusting in God, that they managed to hold onto God through prayer and survived with confidence in God’s never ending mercy and love. So we go on praying...and trusting...and seeing in a new way...and believing, with God’s help, we will overcome this time of trial.
 
Let us use this time for introspection- to seek God in what we think and do - to quiet our minds and let him touch our hearts and help us to truly trust - to SEE!