Shortly before we receive the Eucharist during the Divine Liturgy we utter the words; ” Lord cleanse
me of my sins and have mercy on me” 3 times symbolizing Peter’s 3 time denial and then 3 time
confession of his love for Christ. It reminds us of God’s infinite compassion and mercy when we are
truly sorry for our failures in “missing the mark“ of what we are capable of.
We heard this morning in the epistle Paul’s words to Timothy about being the greatest,
the foremost, the worst sinner. This phrase is used by many before receiving the
Eucharist. In Paul’s case he probably did think of himself as being the worse whenever he
remembered holding the cloaks of those throwing the stones that killed the protomartyr
Stephen. How many of Christ’s followers Paul persecuted we don’t know but do know it was
enough to have gained him a reputation for being against Christ’s followers in a BIG way. Once
seeing the error of his convictions he labored ceaselessly to bring as many as possible to belief in
Christ as the long awaited Messiah.
There is much in the old testament scriptures to indicate that sickness
and ill health are a result of
sinning against God. It struck me that the
blind man would then most definitely have been considered a sinner even
if not considered the greatest. Why the people in front of the blind man tried to get
him to hush up is a good question. Was it because they were embarrassed at the
blind man calling Jesus Son of David? Was Jesus talking and they did not want to
miss what he was saying? The person who is blind, hearing the signs and wonders
Jesus performed and possibly some of Christ’s teachings “sees” Jesus is the Messiah
The blind man says “Jesus, Son of David”. There is irony in that others who have also
heard and seen Jesus’ works do not see. They are blind.
What have we come to see about life, about how to live? Why do we do what we do? Recently I read that in Cape Town, South Africa at a Parliament of the World’s Religions, a universal code of ethics was adopted by all of them. There were 4 non-negotiables for living a good life: not to steal, not to lie, not to murder and not to exploit another sexually. That was 1999. That is pretty simple down to earth ethics. At first glance it does not seem terribly idealistic. I wonder though, how often and how many live out even these four ethical policies.
There is a Zen saying of one who had reached a certain enlightenment. “O marvel of marvels, I chop wood. I draw water from the well.” It is in doing the ordinary, the daily tasks of life, doing what we must do that we come to enlightenment. It brings us to see life for what it is and then the giving of ourselves to make it better.
Life is about coming to an awareness of the ordinary and learning to trust the loving presence of God in all things, in even what we so often regard as burdens. Life is a deep-down struggle to believe and surrender to the Mystery of life. Life is a continuous search for the Spirit who draws us on. It is much like the rabbit who drew the monk’s dog on the search. Let us be like the blind man whose faith enabled him to see. He rose up and followed Jesus, praising God.
Christ is in our midst!
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