The Lord's Sermons
- Sermon 12 -
Quinquagesima Sunday. The Healing of a Blind Man
St. Luke XVIII, 35-43: "And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging: and hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him,that he should hold his peace : But he cried so much more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God."
(January 21, 1872)
Here you have an example of how the firm faith of a blind man in My omnipotence restored his eyesight.
There are now so many blind people on your earth who would be in great need of the light but only few among them are really keen on having their eyesight restored. Most of them are quite happy with their spiritual blindness and have got quite as used to it as a person who was born blind and as a result has improved and perfected his other senses - particularly his sense of touch - to such a degree that it almost replaces his sight. These people are satisfied with their condition because they do not know any better. They do not regret their lack of eyesight since they have no idea what light and its effect actually are.
Just as those born physically blind continue to live their life, so do thousands who are spirtually blind. Their upbringing and circumstances may be responsible for their never having been told about spiritual light and higher levels of comprehension of even the material. For them there does not exist anything but the material. They believe that everything is matter, that matter is the real world, that everything is born out of matter and again returns to it.
To these totally blind belong also those scholars and scientists who, due to the wrong direction of their studies, are themselves responsible for the loss of their last spark of spiritual light. The first are blind and do not know why, whereas the latter want to be blind because the light, if it shone upon them, would not comply with their way of thinking and living.
In additon to these, who are quite happy with their blindness, there are also other blind who have the wish to see. Those are the ones that are sitting like blind beggars at the roadside of life begging the passers-by, when they hear them come, for spiritual nourishment to relieve or even cure their blindness.
Such blind are those people who, in the course of their life, have met with many an experience that gave them food for thought and which they would like to have explained, but who are unable to rid themselves of their darkness. These are the people who stick to religious ceremonies and regard them as more important than they really are. In some cases they do feel that there is something higher beyond this rite, something spiritual that could actually comfort them in cases where human wisdom fails.
These people are sitting at the great road through life of the spirits who are all in the process of their evolvement, and they are the ones that are asking for spiritual charity, so that they may not remain for ever bound to the earth, where they have been placed by their destiny, but can start to soar spiritually as the others are doing, whom they feel passing by. Many travel on the great highway of spiritual progress; however, not all feel called and impelled to help those who implore them, just as not all give alms to a beggar but only those who have a better understanding of the concept of love of their fellowman. Thus these spiritual beggars are given only a meagre livelihood because no one - be it for lack of strength or for lack of knowledge - is able to give the beggars what they are actually asking for, namely, spiritual vision which only few of those passing by fully possess themselves.
However, in order that the hungry for divine nourishment, who are yearning for the light of truth, may receive what they are asking for and in order to restore the sight of those who have been waiting for Me for a long time and with unshakable faith wanted to wait until I Myself, as the great bringer of light, would give them a full measure of that with which others could only have supplied them partly, - I set out on the road Myself.
As the beggar near Jericho recognized My voice from a distance and implored Me, calling: "Thou son of David, have mercy upon me!", many are calling to Me in the distress of their soul and in complete faith that I shall hear their prayers. To these I can then give the full light of My grace, for their faith has helped them. They are firmly convinced that I am the one who can bring them spiritual light and show them the right way to beatitude. To these I give sight, and into their hearts I put the words: "Receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee!"
All of you, My children, were the blind whom I recognized among the crowds because you have sought Me already for a long time out of an inner impulse and felt within you that the knowledge of the Christian religion, which is acquired by study, is insufficient to provide the right comfort in all circumstances of human life.
I let you taste many a bitter medicine to cure you all the sooner from the absurd and wrong notions the world has given you. I educated you through complication of circumstances to become pioneers of My teaching, which soon shall be acknowledged on all the earth as the only one, so that you may prove not only with words but with deeds what the words are meant to express.
Some of you I gave the gift of hearing My voice within you, so that My actual teaching, as it has been established everlastingly for the entire universe, would not be again falsified and interpreted differently from how I gave it to My disciples during My life on earth.
Then, and for the following times, I often had to clothe My Word in parables and mystical sayings, for I knew what the coming generations would be doing with it. I knew what considerable changes My Word would be bringing about in social life and how much persecution and innocent victims it would cost My followers. I spoke in parables, so that the enemies, notwithstanding all their efforts to destroy My teaching, would only nibble at its bark, right to the present day.
Now that mankind has matured and, instead of eliminating only some things from the present religious structure, is inclined to overthrow the whole edifice with all its inmates, the time has come when the plain truth will no longer be detrimental to the majority and could only have a fortifying effect. Now the blind at the great highway to My Spiritual Kingdom are able to receive the light that has already for a long time been streaming upon them in great abundance. Now the time has come when the great edifice of clerical control - as once the walls of Jericho - will come tumbling down through the flourish of trumpets of My divine teaching, so that the blind waiting behind these walls may gain an unobstructed view over the valley of the Jordan, in whose waters I once had Myself baptized and where the voice from the heavens called: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!"
Thus you, too, shall now be baptized through My Word and My Light from the eternal source of the inexhaustible flow of My grace and begin to see, so that I can say: You are My children, in whom I am well pleased. You are the ones who, baptized with My Spirit and gifted with spiritual vision, will have to pass to the blind calling to you from the roadside of life the light which I have been giving you in great abundance already for a long time.
Prepare yourselves to become worthy pupils of the carpenter's son, of the teacher and redeemer on the cross and of the God and Father Who has engraved His two commandments of love with brightly shining letters into all creation, throughout its vast expanses.
Prepare yourselves to spread light where the blind implore you for it so that they, too, may share in the grace, that they may, through direct communication, learn in the shortest possible way what others have often recognized only very late, after much effort and many tribulations, that I - the Lord and Creator of all that exists - am also the Father Who never denies anything to a supplicant if it is for his good, and Who is most willing to open the eyes of the blind that he may recognize and appreciate his Father in the simplicity of Jesus and the glory of the Creator. Amen.