In today’s gospel, Jesus healed a blind man. It’s a story we’ve probably heard many times. Sometimes things we see everyday, or hear over and over again, gets to be so much of a routine that we don’t really even think about them. But, there is a small thing worth noting in today’s gospel, besides the amazing miracle that Jesus performed for this man.
The blind man was not spiritually blind, even if he was physically blind. Jesus must have picked up on this. The blind man at least had enough faith in the Lord to keep calling out to him, in spite of everyone else telling him to be quiet. If the blind man had not continued to insist on calling out to Jesus, he wouldn’t have been healed. And if he had caved in to what the people around him wanted, he wouldn’t have been healed either. That took courage to face their disapproval, and risk creating a scene in front of everyone, knowing they disapproved of his actions.
Contrast how the blind man acted in today’s gospel, with the people in the first reading for mass today. Most of the Israelites simply caved in to what the people around them wanted. They didn’t think for themselves, like the blind beggar did. The Israelites (God’s chosen people) succumbed to the pressures, from the Gentiles they lived with. They abandoned all of their beliefs, traditions and principles by which they had lived for many generations. Their way of life became “unpopular” in the public eye and since the Israelites wanted to fit in better with their peers, they abandoned their holy covenant with God.
Does this sound familiar? Many Catholics in our modern culture have done the same thing. There are many examples of this, such as pro-choice Catholics who believe abortion is morally acceptable and who even draft and support laws permitting something that contradicts the very basic beliefs of our faith about respect for human life. Euthanasia is also beginning to be permitted by law in several states in the US now.
Homosexual people are also allowed to legally get “married” in many parts of the world and Catholics are being told to accept it and don’t “discriminate” against their marriages. Catholics are afraid to speak up about our beliefs that marriage is between a woman and a man and is meant for the procreation and raising of children. We believe that the human family is the foundation of society.
The Catholic Church in America is also being forced by federal law, to provide abortion inducing drugs in their employee health insurance plans, which violates our conscience and is against our religious beliefs too. Our ancestors fought and died to ensure that we would have the right to practice our religion, but the current president and lawmakers decided to over ride this right by a simple piece of legislation, because our beliefs do not fit in with the rest of the culture we live in.
We are currently in the same position as many of the faithful Israelites in the first reading for mass today. The next step their leaders took was to make it against the law to practice their faith at all. If anyone tried to hold on to their religious beliefs, they were put to death:
“Whoever was found with a scroll of the covenant, and whoever observed the law, was condemned to death by royal decree. But many in Israel were determined and resolved in their hearts not to eat anything unclean; they preferred to die rather and to be defiled with unclean food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die.”
The current federal healthcare mandate in the United States is forcing Catholics to do something they are morally opposed to, or be fined and possibly go to jail if they don’t. It is like forcing Jewish people to eat pork.
Things have morally deteriorated pretty badly in many countries in the world. Will we have the courage to resist the overwhelming tide of popular opinion? Do we have the courage to stand up for what we believe in, even if everyone else around us disapproves?
The blind man in the gospel and the Israelites who died for their faith in the first reading for mass today, have already set the standard for all us who are faithful Catholics. May we have the courage to live by their example.
