Homilies on John, Homily 56

“And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” [1.] “And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth.” Full of love for humanity, caring for our salvation, and wanting to silence the foolish, He leaves nothing undone on His part, even when no one pays attention. And the Prophet, knowing this, says, “So that You may be justified when You speak, and be clear when You are judged.” ( Ps. li. 4.) So here, when they would not accept His exalted words, but said that He had a demon and tried to kill Him, He left the Temple and healed the blind man. By leaving, He calmed their rage, and by working the miracle, He softened their hardness and cruelty and confirmed His claims. And He works no ordinary miracle, but one that happened then for the first time. “Since the world began,” says the man who was healed, “no one has ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of someone born blind.” ( Ver. 32.) Perhaps some have opened the eyes of blind people, but never of someone born blind. And this makes it clear that, on leaving the Temple, He deliberately went to do this work: He was the one who saw the blind man; the blind man did not come to Him. And He looked at him so intently that even His disciples noticed. At least, this led them to question Him, for when they saw Him looking intently at the man, they asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” It was a mistaken question, for how could he have sinned before he was born? And if his parents had sinned, how could he have been punished? What, then, led them to ask this question? Earlier, when He healed the paralyzed man, He said, “Look, you have been made well; sin no more.” ( c. v. 14.) So, understanding that he had been paralyzed because of sin, they said, “Well, that other man was paralyzed because of his sins; but what would You say about this man? Has he sinned? That is impossible to say, since he has been blind from birth. Have his parents sinned? We cannot say this either, since a child is not punished for his father’s sins.” So, just as we exclaim when we see a child mistreated, “What can anyone say about this? What has the child done?” without asking a question, but expressing our bewilderment, so the disciples spoke here less to ask for information than to express their confusion. What, then, does Christ say? Ver. 3. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” He says this without clearing them of sins, for He does not simply say, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” but adds, “so that he should have been born blind—but so that the Son of God should be glorified in him.” “For both this man and his parents have sinned, but his blindness does not come from that.” And He said this without implying that, although this man was not in that situation, others had been made blind for such a reason, because of their parents’ sins, since one person cannot be punished when another sins. For if we allow this, we must also allow that he sinned before his birth. So, just as when He declared, “This man did not sin,” He did not say that it is possible to sin from one’s very birth and be punished for it, so when He said, “nor his parents,” He did not say that someone may be punished because of his parents. He rules out this assumption through Ezekiel: “As I live, says the Lord, this proverb that people use shall no longer be used: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” ( Ezek. xviii. 3, 2.) And Moses says, “The father shall not die for the child, nor shall the child die for the father.” ( Deut. xxiv. 16.) And Scripture says of a certain king that, for this very reason, he did not do this, obeying the law of Moses. But if anyone argues, “How, then, does it say, ‘Who visits the sins of the parents on the children to the third and fourth generation’?” ( Deut. v. 9 ); we should answer that the statement is not universal, but refers to certain people who came out of Egypt. Its meaning is this: “Since these people who came out of Egypt, after signs and wonders, have become worse than their ancestors, who saw none of these things, they shall suffer,” it says, “the same things those others suffered, since they have dared to commit the same crimes.” And anyone who pays attention to the passage will know more certainly that it was spoken about those people. Why, then, was he born blind? “So that the glory of God should be revealed,” He says. Look, here again is another difficulty, if the glory of God could not be shown without this man’s punishment. Certainly He does not say it was impossible, for it was possible, but “so that it might be revealed even in this man.” “What?” someone says. “Was he wronged for the glory of God?” Tell me, what wrong did he suffer? For what if God had never chosen to bring him into existence at all? But I maintain that he even benefited from his blindness, since he regained the sight of his inner eyes. What benefit did the Jews get from their eyes? They brought a heavier punishment on themselves, becoming blind even while they saw. And what harm did this man suffer from his blindness? For through it he regained sight. Just as the evils of this present life are not evils, neither are its good things good; sin alone is an evil, but blindness is not an evil. And He who brought this man out of nonexistence into existence also had the power to leave him as he was. [2.] But some say that this conjunction does not express a cause at all, but refers to the result of the miracle, as when He says, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may be made blind” ( ver. 39 ); yet He did not come for this purpose, to make those who saw blind. And again Paul says, “Because what can be known of God is revealed in them, so that they may be without excuse” ( Rom. i. 19, 20 ); yet He did not show it to them to deprive them of an excuse, but so that they might have an excuse. And again in another place, “The Law came in so that the offense might increase” ( Rom. v. 20 ); yet it did not come in for this purpose, but to restrain sin. Do you see how everywhere the conjunction refers to the result? For just as an excellent architect might build part of a house and leave the rest unfinished, so that through what remains he can prove to those who do not believe that he made the whole, so God also joins together and completes our body, like a ruined house: healing the withered hand, strengthening paralyzed limbs, straightening those who are lame, cleansing lepers, raising the sick, making those who are crippled whole, calling the dead back from death, opening eyes that were closed, or adding them where there were none before. All these were defects arising from the weakness of our nature, and by correcting them He showed His power. But when He said, “So that the glory of God might be revealed,” He spoke of Himself, not of the Father; the Father’s glory was already revealed. For since they had heard that God made man by taking dust from the earth, Christ likewise made clay. To say, “I am He who took dust from the earth and made man,” would have been hard for His hearers to accept; but when this was shown through an actual deed, it no longer stood in their way. So by taking earth and mixing it with spit, He revealed His hidden glory; for it was no small glory to be recognized as the Architect of creation. And everything else followed from this: the part proved the whole, since belief in the greater also confirmed the lesser. For man is more honorable than any created thing, and the most honorable of our body parts is the eye. This is why He formed the eyes in the particular way He did, rather than in an ordinary way. For although this body part is small, it is more necessary than any part of the body. And Paul showed this when he said, “If the ear says, Because I am not the eye, I am not part of the body, does that mean it is not part of the body?” ( 1 Cor. xii. 16.) Everything in us reveals God’s wisdom, but the eye does so much more: it guides the whole body, gives beauty to it all, adorns the face, and is the light of all the limbs. What the sun is to the world, the eye is to the body. Put out the sun, and you destroy everything and throw it into confusion; put out the eyes, and the feet, the hands, and the soul are useless. When the eyes are disabled, even knowledge is gone, since through them we know God. “For His invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made.” ( Rom. i. 20.) So the eye is a light not only to the body, but beyond the body, to the soul as well. This is why it is placed as though in a royal fortress, occupying the higher position and presiding over the other senses. This, then, is what Christ forms. After spreading on the clay, He says this so that you will not think He needs matter when He works, and so that you will learn that He had no need of clay at all (for He who brought the greater things into existence when they did not yet exist could much more easily have made this without matter). He says it, I repeat, so that you will learn that He did this because He wanted to show that He was the Creator in the beginning, rather than because He needed the clay: “Go, wash,” “so that you may know that I do not need clay to create eyes, but that My glory may be revealed through this.” For to show that He spoke of Himself when He said, “So that the glory of God may be revealed,” He added, Ver. 4. “I must do the works of Him who sent Me.” That is, “I must reveal Myself and do the things that show I do the same things as the Father”; not “similar” things, but “the same”—an expression that indicates an even more complete identity and is used of those who do not differ in the slightest. Who, then, will oppose Him after this, when he sees that He has the same power as the Father? For He not only formed or opened eyes, but also gave the gift of sight, which proves that He also breathed in the soul. For if the soul were not at work, the eye, though fully formed, could never see anything. So He gave both the activity that comes from the soul and the body part itself, complete with everything: arteries, nerves, veins, and everything our body is made of. “I must work while it is day.” What do these words mean? What conclusion do they lead to? An important one. For what He says means this: “While it is day, while people can believe in Me, while this life lasts, I must work.” “The night is coming,” that is, the life to come, “when no one can work.” He did not say, “when I cannot work,” but “when no one can work”: that is, when there is no longer faith, or labor, or repentance. For to show that He calls faith a “work,” when they ask Him, “What should we do to do the works of God?” ( c. vi. 28 ), He answers, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” How, then, can no one do this work in the world to come? Because there is no faith there, but everyone, willingly or unwillingly, will submit. For so that no one would say He acted as He did out of a desire for honor, He shows that He did everything to spare those who had the power to believe only “here,” but could no longer gain any good thing “there.” This is why He did what He did even though the blind man did not come to Him. For what follows—his courage, his very faith—makes it clear that the man was worthy to be healed; that if he had been able to see, he would have believed and come to Christ; and that even if he had heard from someone that He was there, he would not have failed to act. For he might well have thought to himself and said, “What is this? He made clay, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go, wash.’ Could he not have healed me and then sent me to Siloam? I have often washed there with many others and gained nothing; if he had any power, he would have healed me while he was here.” This is just how Naaman spoke about Elisha, for when he too was told to go wash in the Jordan, he did not believe, even though Elisha was so widely known. ( 2 Kings v. 11.) But the blind man neither disbelieved nor objected nor reasoned with himself, “What is this? Should he have put clay on my eyes? That is more likely to make someone even blinder. Who ever regained sight this way?” But he used no such reasoning. Do you see his steadfast faith and zeal? “The night is coming.” Next He shows that even after the Crucifixion He would care for the ungodly and bring many to Himself. For “it is still day.” But after that, He cuts them off completely, and to declare this, He says, Ver. 5. “As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” [3.] He also said to others, “Believe while the light is with you.” ( c. xii. 36.) Why, then, did Paul call this life “night” and the other “day”? He was not contradicting Christ, but saying the same thing, if not in words, then in meaning; for he too says, “The night is nearly over, the day is near.” ( Rom. xiii. 12.) He calls the present time “night” because of those who sit in darkness, or because he compares it with that coming day. Christ calls the future “night” because there sin has no power to work; but Paul calls the present life night because those who continue in wickedness and unbelief are in darkness. So, addressing the faithful, he said, “The night is nearly over, the day is near,” since they would enjoy that light; and he calls the old life night. “Let us put away,” he says, “the works of darkness.” Do you see that he tells them it is “night”? That is why he says, “Let us live honorably, as in the day,” so that we may enjoy that light. For if this light is so good, consider what that light will be like. As sunlight is brighter than a candle’s flame, that light is better than this by as much and far more. And to indicate this, Christ says that “the sun shall be darkened.” Because that brightness is so overwhelming, even the sun will not be seen. If we now spend enormous sums building and working to have well-lit, airy houses here, consider how we ought to spend our very bodies so that glorious houses may be built for us in heaven, where that indescribable Light is. Here there are quarrels and disputes over boundaries and walls, but there will be nothing like that there: no envy, no malice, no one disputing with us over where to set boundaries. We will also certainly have to leave this dwelling, but that one stays with us forever; this one must decay with time and be exposed to countless kinds of damage, but that one must remain forever without growing old. A poor person cannot build this one, but anyone can build that other one with two mites, as the widow did. This is why I choke with grief: with so many blessings set before us, we are lazy and despise them. We make every effort to have splendid houses here, but we do not care or think about how to gain even a little resting place in heaven. For tell me, where would you want your home here? In the wilderness, or in one of the smaller cities? I think not, but in one of the grandest royal cities, where there is more trade and greater splendor. But I will lead you into a City whose Builder and Maker is God; there I urge you to lay your foundation and build, at less cost [with less labor]. The hands of the poor build that house, and this is truly “building,” just as the structures made here are the work of extreme foolishness. For if someone took you to the land of Persia to see what was there and return, and then told you to build houses there, would you not condemn him as extremely foolish for telling you to spend money at the wrong time? How, then, can you do this very thing on the earth you will soon leave? “But I will leave it to my children,” someone says. Yet they too will leave it soon after you; indeed, often even before you, and their successors will do the same. And even here it saddens you to see your heirs fail to keep their possessions, but there you need fear nothing of the kind. The possession remains secure for you, your children, and their descendants, if they imitate the same goodness. Christ takes charge of that building. The person who builds it need not appoint caretakers or worry or be anxious; for when God has undertaken the work, what need is there to worry? He brings everything together and raises the house. And this is not the only wonderful thing: He also builds it to please you, or rather, even beyond what pleases you, beyond what you desire; for He is the finest Artist and cares deeply about your welfare. If you are poor and want to build this house, it brings you no envy and stirs up no malice against you, for none of those who know how to envy see it, but only the Angels, who know how to rejoice in your blessings. No one will be able to encroach on it, for none of those afflicted with such passions live near it. Your neighbors there are the saints, Peter and Paul with their company, all the Prophets, the Martyrs, the multitude of Angels and Archangels. For the sake of all these things, then, let us pour out our wealth on the poor so that we may obtain those tents. May we all obtain them through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, now and forever, for ages without end. Amen.