A Reflection on the Daily Office Readings
Have you ever cried so hard that you felt you could not cry anymore? Job described his crying in this manner: “My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids”. Job was not a violent person, and he did not deserve to go through so much pain. In fact, he was pure of heart. Yet, Job’s outcry found no resting place, his closest friends scorned him, his spirit was broken, death appeared imminent, the grave was calling his name, and, no matter how hard he tried, he could not see a way back to what once was a wonderful life. Despite all this, Job persevered in the real hope that God in heaven was witnessing his suffering, and, in God’s time and in God’s way, Job would be cared for when he needed it most. To whom do we turn when overcome by suffering? In what ways has God provided for us during our most difficult times?
Have you ever had an epiphany while you were observing a fast? What new revelation have you experienced in the midst of worship? In this passage, the faithful were worshiping the Lord and fasting when, out of nowhere, the Holy Spirit requested that Barnabas and Saul be set apart for church ministry. The faithful laid their hands on them and sent them off in the power of the Holy Spirit. Barnabas and Paul arrived at Salamis and, with the assistance of John, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. Has anyone ever laid holy hands on you and prayed over you? What might this experience feel like and mean to you personally?
After some time, Barnabas and Paul came across a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus. This magician was an intelligent man; he summoned Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear the word of God so that he might find reason to turn the community away from faith in Jesus Christ. But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now listen - the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he went about groping for someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul, an official of Rome, saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord. What has been our response to irrational people when they request us to make a rational argument in defense of what we do in the name of the Lord? How might being filled with the Holy Spirit enable us to better respond to false teachings and address those who seek to attack us?
As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Have we ever tried to draw a connection between someone’s suffering and their sin? How might assuming such a connection affect the person who is suffering?
We are told that Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." In what ways have the dark moments in our life served as a way for the light of Christ to be revealed through us?
I find it interesting that after Jesus had denounced the connection between sin and suffering, he spat on the ground, made mud with the saliva, spread the mud on the man's eyes, and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Honestly, I would have been upset at first if Jesus did this to me. Yet, this blind man responded in complete faith; he went and washed and came back able to see. We need to remind ourselves that God’s ways are not our ways - his plans are not our plans. How open are we to letting God work according to his time and desire for our life?
This passage offers us a sharp turn in events as we find the neighbors and those who had seen the blind man before as a beggar ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" Sometimes, God is ready for us to begin a new chapter of healing and holiness in our life but the community is stuck in the past defining us according to who we used to be. Even after the blind man informed the community that Jesus was the one who healed him, they had a hard time embracing this new chapter in the blind man’s life. We are told that the Pharisees denounced this blind man’s faith in Jesus and focused instead on maligning Jesus for not observing the sabbath. Be careful my brothers and sisters! No matter how great a story God is willing to write in our life, there will be naysayers who rebuke our story and attempt to discredit our experience of a new life in Jesus Christ. We must remain faithful to Christ for he alone is the way, the truth and the life that we so desire to have.
To God be the glory now and forever. Amen.
Fr. Thomas+
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