20 February. Wednesday of Week 6

Jesus seems to take people as he finds them. There is a gentleness in his dealing with the blind man’s need…

1st Reading: Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22

The Lord promises never again to destroy the earth

At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.
In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odour, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

Responsorial: Psalm 115:12-15, 18-19

Response: To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise

How can I repay the Lord
for his goodness to me?
The cup of salvation I will raise;
I will call on the Lord’s name. (R./)
My vows to the Lord I will fulfil
before all his people.
O precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of his faithful. (R./)
My vows to the Lord I will fulfil
before all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. (R./)

Gospel: Mark 8:22-26

Jesus cures the blind man with spittle and the touch of his hands

Jesus and his disciples came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when he had put saliva on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Can you see anything?” And the man looked up and said, “I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.”
Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Then he sent him away to his home, saying, “Do not even go into the village.”

Maturing step by step

The gospel suggests that we come to enlightenment by gradual stages. Our text from Genesis tells how the great flood in Noah’s time ran its its full course and that the return to normal existence cannot be rushed. The story about the cure of a blind man has special interest, in that the cure took place in stages. At first the man got back a blurred vision, and he dimly saw “people looking like trees, walking”. This story is told only by Mark. It was not even adapted by Matthew and Luke, even though they both relied heavily on Mark as a source. Maybe they were repelled by the fact that Jesus put his spittle on the blind man’s eyes.
Jesus seems to take people as he finds them. There is a gentleness in his dealing with the blind man’s need. First he took him by the hand and led him outside the village. Then, away from the crowd, he put spittle on his eyes and touching the closed eyelids with his fingers, he bonded with the blind man. This poor man could not see the compassion in Jesus’ eyes at the sight of this disability, but could feel the clasp of his hand and touch of his fingers. Jesus fully adapted himself to the human condition of need.
The stages of the miracle are interesting: at first, the man’s vision was so blurred that people looked like walking trees; then after his cure, he could see everything clearly. These too are the stages of our growth in faith. We may be grateful to Mark for preserving the memory of Jesus working by stages. This applies to our life also and any growth we may make toward holiness. We cannot reach holiness on our own, but must let Jesus take us by the  hand. We too should take the hand of our neighbour in need, and to our surprise the hand that we clasp is leading us to our salvation.