Returning Sight Is Link To Baptism –The cure of the blind man also symbolizes mankind’s means for its recovery from its blindness.
It symbolizes the Sacrament of Baptism.
Baptism is called holy enlightenment. Those who have been recently baptized are called the newly enlightened. This gospel from Saint John was read in the ancient Church on Holy Saturday when Catechumens were baptized.
As this man is cured of his blindness when he washes in the pool of Siloam as Jesus tells him to do, so are we brought out of darkness into a new life when we are baptized as Christ instructed us to be.
Jesus restores His creation, mankind, with the potential to become what it was meant to be before the fall of Adam.
We also hear in the reading that after this man was cured many of those who knew him before did not recognize him. He is still the same man but something has significantly changed about him. He is no longer blind.
So when we are illuminated we are also new persons, though our outward appearance might be the same. To symbolize this newness a white garment is put on us to show the purity with which we start this new existence. We must, however, become different and unrecognizable in our inward and outward actions also. We must manifest our new existence to those around us through these actions. We must radiate this new found light to others by the way we live our lives. We must say to the world, “I am he who was blind but now my eyes are opened.”
Credit must be given to Him who has cured us of our darkness by living our lives according to the lessons of the illumination we have received and the continued guidance we get with the reception of the Holy Spirit.
Returning Sight Is Link To Baptism
