[ Today's Readings ]
He replied, “Lord, please let me see.”
Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
We need Jesus to give us sight. Only faith in him can do it. Only his Spirit is the lampstand in our midst by which we truly see.
When it comes to sight as a metaphor one might think it sufficient to know true things. We should not be fooled by wickedness nor even tolerate at. We should test false Apostles and discover that they are imposters. We should in fact cling to the truth. We may even suffer for it. But the true source of our sight is more than mere truth. It is love.
Yet I hold this against you:
you have lost the love you had at first.
Realize how far you have fallen.
It's easier to imagine how truth helps us see. Even goodness keeps us from falling in pits so that metaphor makes sense. But all of this is like a map with no compass or no north star. There is no ultimate source of direction. Love is the force that points the needles of our hearts toward heaven. Without it we wander. Without it our lampstands are eventually removed and we stumble blindly.
We need Jesus to give us this sight. It is sight that beholds him and in beholding him loves him.
He immediately received his sight
and followed him, giving glory to God.
When they saw this, all the people gave praise to God.
These are the eyes, not of our minds, but of our hearts. We need Jesus to open them. We need our love to be a genuine response to the vision he himself reveals to us. Jesus becomes for us the running water that keeps us alive in every season and enables us to bear fruit.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
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