+ We continue today St. Luke’s
version of what
we heard St. Matthew tell us about last Sunday: Jesus is asked by disciples of
John the Baptist if he is the one who is
to come, or should they look for another? At that point Jesus tells them in
this case “seeing and hearing is believing” - the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the
dear hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the good news proclaimed to
them: go back and report these things to John and let him make up he own
mind – let him “believe without actually seeing and hearing!”
This is how it works for all of us: believing is seeing; God, through
faith, grants deep spiritual insight
to those who hear about Jesus from the word
preached to them, and believe in Him;
and this insight causes them to see the true invisible realities of the “things
of God,” as God intends them to be known.
Quite obviously there was something seriously
wrong with the faith of the Pharisees
and scholars of the law; perhaps familiarity breeded a dangerous amount of
contempt and now that the long-awaited Messiah had truly appeared they were
incapable of receiving him. It is the childlike who can convert believing in Santa Clause into seeing him;
it is the childlike as well, of any age, who can convert believing in Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man into seeing him
and entering into a personal and salvific relationship with him. This causes
great joy in the heart – a real release and restoration and healing – as Isaiah
foretold – from all that sin incapacitates and diminishes.
Prepare
the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: All flesh shall see the salvation
of God.
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