Mk 8: 22-26
They 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.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
I see people looking like trees…
Most of Jesus’ healing miracles happen instantaneously. But today’s Gospel tells the sole exception where Jesus needs to pray a second time for a complete healing. Perhaps the man’s faith just wasn’t strong enough. Maybe Jesus was exhausted from a hard day of ministry. Whatever the reason, this story gives us hope. Most times, healing only comes gradually into our lives. But we are impatient and want it now, and when it doesn’t happen on our timetable, so often we fret and fear.
The earth is about 4.5 billion years old. And we humans as a genus have only been here a few million years. Ponder that reality the next time you’re waiting for a light to turn green, for a slow-moving freight train to clear the tracks, or for the healing presence of God to be made manifest in your life. Good things come to those who wait in hope!
—Fr. J. Michael Sparough, SJ, is a retreat master, writer, and spiritual director at Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House in Barrington, Illinois. His weekly video reflections can be viewed here.
Prayer
Jesus Christ, may your death be my life
and in your dying may I learn how to live.
May your struggles be my rest,
Your human weakness my courage,
Your embarrassment my honor,
Your passion my delight,
Your sadness my joy,
In your humiliation may I be exalted.
In a word, may I find all my blessings in your trials.
Amen.
—St. Peter Faber, SJ
Prayer
Patient Trust
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability— and that it may take a very long time.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ