Seeing With New Eyes
Julián Carrón - We can imagine the backlash from all those in the people of Israel who heard these words with which the first reading begins: "Say to those of a fearful heart, 'Take courage, do not fear! Here is your God. He comes to save you.'"
Each person can recall the backlash he or she felt before hearing these words. Each of us, in the moments we are living, with the challenges we face and the perceptions we hold of ourselves, of life, and of our problems—how often do we take these phrases for granted! It may help us to reflect on what these phrases imply, to become aware of who we are, and to return to the Psalm: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”.
Who are we that God could hold such esteem for our destiny and care for us? These words express the amazement of those who truly realize that God's care for us is far from a given. Who am I that you care for me? Only someone who is aware of his own nothingness, of his insignificance, can truly marvel at the preference with which God regards us—a preference that even those who heard God's words, spoken through the prophet Isaiah then and still to us today, must have felt personally!
That God—the God who had brought them out of Egypt, whom they had seen accompanying the people through the wilderness, who had given them the land in which they dwelt, who had cared for them—would once again turn to those with a fearful heart (like us), and after this entire story, turn to us again, is something that cannot be taken for granted at all! "Courage, fear not!" You are not alone. "Behold your God," the One whom you have seen act in history "comes [again] as an advocate for you." For them, God was not an empty word, an abstract or unreal concept, as we so often hear it today. The God of whom Isaiah speaks—using the phrase "your God" (the "your" of the people)—was the One whom they had known throughout history. He was such a real presence that they were once again amazed by His faithfulness.
In what way will they—and we—recognize the truth of these words, that their God is truly God, unlike the idols that are powerless to change lives? Isaiah describes what God is about to do: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall shout for joy. Waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. [...] The burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water."
The reality of God is seen in His ability to impact life and make it flourish, turning it from a parched land—as life often feels for us—into a land brimming with exuberance and vitality! This is what we heard in the Responsorial Psalm: “The Lord restores sight to the blind, raises up those who have fallen, and protects strangers.”
These words were not heard merely as a promise, but as something they witnessed happening, as in the Gospel we just heard: "They brought to Him a deaf-mute and begged Him to lay His hand on him. He took him aside, put His fingers into his ears, and, with saliva, touched his tongue. [...] And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he spoke clearly.”
They saw that their God was not a God who made empty promises but one who truly transformed reality. They witnessed that promise fulfilled! How was this evident in them? Through their awe. Faced with this event, after hearing about the miracle that happened to the deaf-mute man, the Gospel comments: “Filled with amazement, they said, ‘He has done all things well; He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!’” Without astonishment within ourselves, we are not convinced. That is why, so often, God seems unreal to us.
What is this astonishment? What was it that amazed them? Was it simply seeing the deaf hear and the mute speak? While extraordinary, that was not the decisive thing. There are many who hear and speak, yet their lives are flat. One may not hear (like a deaf person) or speak (like a mute person) because there is nothing meaningful to hear or say. One can have everything, but that is not what Jesus came to bring. Through these signs, He came to change the banality of living, because life—hearing and speaking—can be reduced to utter banality. This does not make the news, and thus surprises no one.
So what filled them with astonishment? They were amazed at Him who “had made the deaf hear and the mute speak!”—at the fact that there was someone, a man standing before them, who could change lives like that! The amazement was for Jesus! For, in Jesus, God brings about the transformation of life.
But someone hearing these things might think, as my students used to say when I read these Gospel passages in class, “It’s very nice, professor, to hear about these miracles, but these things don’t happen anymore!” So, they were not interested. This objection may be ours as well: it’s nice to hear this when we listen to God’s word every Sunday, but, when it comes down to it, what does it actually change?
This skepticism can only be answered by the reoccurrence today of what the Gospel speaks about. In fact, Christianity is either an event or it is not Christianity. One realizes that Christ is Christ and is at work in our midst because one experiences the newness that fills life with an intensity never felt before, with a fullness previously unimaginable: the blind begin to see reality with new eyes; the deaf begin to hear what previously meant nothing to them; the steppe, the aridness of life, is filled with new life, like water making the desert of our existence bloom. It is a new life that transforms our everyday living.
A few days ago, a friend told me that he met someone he hadn’t seen in a long time. As they talked about life, this person was amazed at the newness he saw in my friend, even to the point of telling him that he was just astonished by how "enthusiastic" he was about what he was living, so much so that he wanted to see him again!
The amazement is not simply in hearing the Gospel, but in the fact that, after years, one meets an old friend and sees that, while their own life is fading and becoming barren, their friend’s life is flourishing. Or the girl who stumbles upon a group of people and, seeing what is happening in and among them, desires to participate in the newness she sees radiating from them. Only when one sees these things can they respond to the objection my students used to raise, because these events still happen before our eyes today.
We know that Christ continues today to fulfill the promise of making all things a hundredfold. When we encounter people—men or women—who, through the newness they bring, arouse the same amazement we see in the Gospel, it “triggers” in them the desire not to miss out on this life they see happening now, not in Isaiah's time, not just in Jesus' time, but today, right before them. No special endowment is needed; all that is required is the poverty of spirit to welcome this newness when He makes it happen before our eyes, as we heard in the second reading: “Has not God chosen the poor in the eyes of the world, who are rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom, promised to those who love Him?”
Only if, when we see this newness—as they did in the time of Jesus—we go along with it, can we participate in the newness Christ has introduced into history, ensuring that our lives will not be lost. This assures us that our God is not unreal, not abstract, but full of the newness He bestows upon those who make room for Him in their lives.
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