+ St. John of Damascus was one of the most influential Greek theologians of the Church. His thought impacted the work of Thomas Aquinas, Peter Lombard and others. Born in 657 in Damascus, Syria, of a wealthy Christian family, he was well educated by a Sicilian monk in science and theology. He resigned a well-to-do public office and divided his wealth among his relatives, the Church and the poor and became a monk and later a priest. John invested his time, energy and considerable intellectual gifts in the composition of hymns and theological works, the most important of which was his Fount of Wisdom, which was divided into three parts: philosophy, heresies, and the Orthodox faith. The last was a summary of the teaching of the Greek Fathers on the main elements of the Christian faith, the Trinity, creation, the Incarnation, the Church, the sacraments, Mary, and the Second Coming of Christ. John died in 749 and for all of this invaluable work he was declared Doctor of the Church in 1890.
John had a quintessentially Catholic sacramental vision: "The one who seeks God continually will find him, for God is in everything." Our gospel reading today for this Friday in Advent demonstrates this very idea: Jesus gives sight, both physical and spiritual to the blind man, so that he can see God and his works everywhere! It is by faith that this can really be that the man is healed and can see. We too, today, can be healed and see better than ever the manifold works of God and his presence in all aspects of our lives – if we take the time to seek him, ask his intervention and be willing to see things as they really are rather than the way we might want them to be.
As the Prophet Isaiah so beautifully puts it today, and as John of Damascus preached it: on the day of the Lord, the deaf shall hear, the eyes of the blind shall see, the lowly will ever find joy in the Lord and the poor will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Behold the Lord shall come with power; he will enlighten the eyes of his servants!
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