“Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding, and those who find fault shall receive instruction.”
The first reading for mass ends with these words from the book of Isaiah. This isn’t the main point of the first reading for mass, but it is still something worth noting. God is merciful to those who love Him. God is merciful even with our sins, rash judgements and misunderstandings. If you break this statement down into two parts: there is the one who sins, and there is the one who judges the sinner. God is the mediator. But, he is only the mediator, the healer, if both parties involved love Him and respect Him.
This would be a good thing to pray for today. To pray for those who “err in spirit”, that they acquire understanding, and to pray for those who find fault with them, that they too “receive instruction”. The reason this is a good idea to pray for this intention today, is because of our families and friends. Christmas is fast approaching and there are very few perfect families or perfect friendships. In fact, sometimes the most perfect, Catholic families or our most devout friend, can be the ones who are the most judgmental of others who are not like them. We need to be careful of this trap. We have to judge situations sometimes, but we are called to not judge the person.
There are so many contributing factors that cause people to err in their thinking. Often, it is a lack of knowledge that causes people to sin. When they finally understand the truth, when someone explains it to them in an atmosphere of love and acceptance, they are more apt to change their ways. That is why this reading says that those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding. A sin is only mortal, with full understanding. Rather than find fault, we really should accept and love sinners for we too are sinners, and someone once enlightened us. Did we learn the truth through someone else’s act of love?
Isaiah prophesied in today’s first reading that the eyes of the blind shall see, and Jesus did just that. When the two blind men asked Jesus to heal them in today’s gospel, Jesus first asked them, “Do you believe that I can do this?” The two blind men Jesus healed truly believed in Christ’s ability to heal them.
Jesus also asked Lazarus’ sister Martha, if she believed he could raise Lazarus from the dead. This is something for us to think about too, especially in light of today’s first reading, and concerning some of our family members, friends or acquaintances who may be “erring in spirit”. Do we really believe that Jesus can heal them? When we pray for them, do we ever say “Yes, Lord, I believe that you can heal my friend, or family member.” or “Yes, I believe you can heal this situation?” The spoken word has power. If it didn’t, Christ would have just healed these two blind men on the spot and been on his way. But, he didn’t. He asked them to say the words, “Yes, Lord” to affirm their belief in him.
We can have our own forms of blindness in how we view other people who are living a sinful lifestyle. Can we honestly say that we pray for them? It’s difficult to overcome this resistance in ourselves, and be concerned with the welfare of someone who we may think doesn’t deserve our prayers, but maybe we could try it anyway. Pray for that person for a while and see if the situation doesn’t at least get better. If the person you pray for doesn’t change, your prayers will at least change you.
