FAUSTI - The period is around the feast of the Huts and we are still near the Temple, from which Jesus is leaving. The initiative, as already with the sick man of 5,6 , belongs to Jesus, who is not blind: He is the Son Who sees, as the Father sees, also the brothers. The story begins with Him Who sees the blind and ends with the ex-blind who sees and adores Him. It is not man who sees God, but God Who sees man and gives him the capacity to see himself new, with His own glance. Every religion intends or claims to lead to enlightenment. But this can only be a gift of Light. Not seeing physically is taken as an image to indicate spiritual blindness, typical of those who do not know where they are, where they come from and where they go. This blindness prevents us from seeing the Truth that makes us free (8:32). Jesus is not alone: there is the "we" of the disciples with which He identifies Himself; they are His brothers, generated by the Word of Truth that makes us free (8:32), children capable of carrying out, like Him, Father's works for the benefit of the brothers; this "we" is contrasted with the final "we" of the blind Pharisees who carry out the works of their father, untrue and murderous from the beginning. The term "must" is connected with the work par excellence, when the Son of Man, raised, will give His Life to the world (3:14). The day is the day when Jesus came, the day that Abraham saw and exulted (8:56). While he lives, the Son does the works of the Father. The time of His earthly Life is the day which has enlightened and enlightens every man, showing him his reality. The miracle that ensues is the "sign" of Jesus as the Light of the World. He made mud with spit. The gesture recalls the Creation of Man, made from the earth (Gen 2:7). But it is a new Creation that Jesus places before the eyes of the blind: the mud is no longer mixed with water, but with the Spirit. This is the original plan of God, who made Adam with the earth animated by His breath:made him His son. But who can remove from the mud of death the man who is mud and sinks into it, if not that mud that is mixed with Spirit and Life? His mud, that of Jesus, is His humanity, similar to ours, but also Divine. He is both man and God, the Son who lives by the same Spirit of the Father. His flesh is the messianic anointing that restores to every flesh its full humanity. Jesus does not heal the blind man. He orders him, like Elisha to the leper, to go and wash himself (2 Kings 5:10). He put His mud over his eyes, He placed the new man before him. It is now up to the blind to say yes or no to the proposal. His life depends on his freedom to listen or not to the Word. Faith is man's free response to God's liberating plan.
FAUSTI - The period is around the feast of the Huts and we are still near the Temple, from which Jesus is leaving.
RispondiEliminaThe initiative, as already with the sick man of 5,6 , belongs to Jesus, who is not blind: He is the Son Who sees, as the Father sees, also the brothers.
The story begins with Him Who sees the blind and ends with the ex-blind who sees and adores Him.
It is not man who sees God, but God Who sees man and gives him the capacity to see himself new, with His own glance. Every religion intends or claims to lead to enlightenment. But this can only be a gift of Light.
Not seeing physically is taken as an image to indicate spiritual blindness, typical of those who do not know where they are, where they come from and where they go.
This blindness prevents us from seeing the Truth that makes us free (8:32). Jesus is not alone: there is the "we" of the disciples with which He identifies Himself; they are His brothers, generated by the Word of Truth that makes us free (8:32), children capable of carrying out, like Him, Father's works for the benefit of the brothers; this "we" is contrasted with the final "we" of the blind Pharisees who carry out the works of their father, untrue and murderous from the beginning. The term "must" is connected with the work par excellence, when the Son of Man, raised, will give His Life to the world (3:14).
The day is the day when Jesus came, the day that Abraham saw and exulted (8:56).
While he lives, the Son does the works of the Father.
The time of His earthly Life is the day which has enlightened and enlightens every man, showing him his reality. The miracle that ensues is the "sign" of Jesus as the Light of the World. He made mud with spit. The gesture recalls the Creation of Man, made from the earth (Gen 2:7). But it is a new Creation that Jesus places before the eyes of the blind: the mud is no longer mixed with water, but with the Spirit. This is the original plan of God, who made Adam with the earth animated by His breath:made him His son.
But who can remove from the mud of death the man who is mud and sinks into it, if not that mud that is mixed with Spirit and Life? His mud, that of Jesus, is His humanity, similar to ours, but also Divine. He is both man and God, the Son who lives by the same Spirit of the Father.
His flesh is the messianic anointing that restores to every flesh its full humanity.
Jesus does not heal the blind man. He orders him, like Elisha to the leper, to go and wash himself (2 Kings 5:10).
He put His mud over his eyes, He placed the new man before him. It is now up to the blind to say yes or no to the proposal.
His life depends on his freedom to listen or not to the Word.
Faith is man's free response to God's liberating plan.