A Process of Growing in Faith

Homily for Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

The story of healing that we hear today from the Gospel of St. Mark is peculiar to his Gospel. Though the other Gospels tell us of Jesus giving blind people their sight, it is only in the Gospel of St. Mark that we hear that the community has brought this man to Jesus for healing. St. Mark’s gospel also is unique because of the physical details that it includes, such as the fact that Jesus used his own spittle. Perhaps the later Gospels avoided these details because they are somewhat unsavory.

Another unique feature of this particular healing story is that it does not happen immediately. Though the man can see dimly after the first touch of Jesus, it takes a second laying on of hands before his sight is completely restored. St. Mark’s intention in this detail is not clearly evident in our English translation which reads, “He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked, ‘Do you see anything?’” While the English translation puts all of the verbs in the past tense, the original Greek places all of the verbs in the present tense, namely, “he takes the blind man by the hand and leads him outside the village. Putting spittle on his eyes he lays his hands on the man and asks, ‘do you see anything?’” In other words, even in recounting a story from the past, St. Mark does not describe what Jesus did so much as what Jesus does. In other words, St. Mark is telling the story in such a way as to show that Jesus is continually present to us.

Often times, this seems to be the way our own personal faith develops; namely, not immediately but gradually. Each encounter that we have with Jesus in our own personal life deepens our faith and helps us to continue to grow in that faith. Faith helps us know that despite our inability to understand perfectly, Jesus is working with us, gradually making us whole again. With faith, then, we approach the Eucharist, trusting the Lord to heal us in his time, and thankful that the Eucharist will nourish us during this process.