By Fr. Roy Cimagala *
THAT gospel episode where two blind men approached Christ
asking for a cure of their condition (cfr. Mt 9,27-31) somehow reminds
us of what really is to have a good vision and what true blindness is.
I believe that our common understanding of these two realities in our
life does not go far enough to enter into the question of what they
really are.
We usually say that we can consider ourselves as having good
vision when we can see things clearly, as in having what some eye
specialists term as 20/20 visual acuity. And blindness is understood
as when we do not see things at all or clearly enough. Obviously,
these are correct descriptions. But they are not enough.
Let us remember that all our human powers and faculties—our
intelligence, will, all our senses, emotions, memory, imagination,
etc.—are given to us by our Creator so that we can be what he wants us
to be—his image and likeness, sharers of his divine life. They are all
meant for us to be able to be with God, since our life is not meant
only to be a natural life, but is also meant to be a supernatural life
with God.
In other words, the proper object of all our faculties and
powers, including our sense of sight, is God himself. If we only use
them to engage ourselves with earthly and temporal things but failing
to relate ourselves to God, then we would actually be misusing them.
That is when, in the case of our sense of sight, we can be regarded as
blind, even if we can see things clearly. Unless we see God through
our sense of sight, we can consider ourselves as somehow blind.
Obviously, our sense of sight would need a higher faculty to
put it in its proper condition. That is where our intelligence and
will have to do their part in connecting themselves with God’s gift of
faith so they can train our senses, including our eyes, to discern the
presence of God whom they have to see, hear, taste, etc. Our senses
just cannot be on their own. They need to be guided by our
intelligence and will that in turn should be enlightened by faith.
When one has faith, even if it is just little, we can
actually see the marvels of God taking place all around us everyday.
Our eyes can see God everywhere. It is faith that lets us enter into
the spiritual and supernatural world. It brings us to share in God’s
wisdom and power. Remember those stirring words of Christ: “If you
have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain,
Remove from there, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be
impossible to you.” ((Mt 17,20)
It is faith that tells us that God is present everywhere,
and more than that, he is actually and abidingly intervening in our
lives, since he is still creating and redeeming us through the
ordinary events and circumstances of our life. In other words, God
speaks and shows his will to us through the all the things that
comprise our day. It’s when we fail to realize this truth that we
truly become blind.
This is a truth of faith that we should be constantly aware
of, so we can do our part in corresponding to God’s actions on us. We
need to train all our faculties and powers, including our senses,
especially our eyes, to capture that basic reality of our life.
* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
