Articles

Eyes to see again

The deluge ends. God and people are reconciled again. The dove returns with an olive branch in its beak. Noah thanks the Lord.
As a sign that he came to heal—that is, to make whole again—to bring forgiveness and life to the whole person, Jesus restores the sight of the blind, makes the deaf hear again, even raises the dead back to life. He does not only bring good news of hope and healing, he is that Good News, he embodies it in himself and shares it with people in word and deed.

Reading: Genesis 8:6-13,20-22

After forty days Noah opened the window that he had built into the ship.
He sent out a raven; it flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up. Then he sent a dove to check on the flood conditions, but it couldn’t even find a place to perch—water still covered the Earth. Noah reached out and caught it, brought it back into the ship.
He waited seven more days and sent out the dove again. It came back in the evening with a freshly picked olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the flood was about finished.
He waited another seven days and sent the dove out a third time. This time it didn’t come back.
In the six-hundred-first year of Noah’s life, on the first day of the first month, the flood had dried up. Noah opened the hatch of the ship and saw dry ground.
Noah built an altar to God. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. God smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, “I’ll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I’ll never again kill off everything living as I’ve just done.
For as long as Earth lasts,
        planting and harvest, cold and heat,
    Summer and winter, day and night
        will never stop.”

Gospel: Mark 8:22-26

They arrived at Bethsaida. Some people brought a sightless man and begged Jesus to give him a healing touch. Taking him by the hand, he led him out of the village. He put spit in the man’s eyes, laid hands on him, and asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up. “I see men. They look like walking trees.” So Jesus laid hands on his eyes again. The man looked hard and realized that he had recovered perfect sight, saw everything in bright, twenty-twenty focus. Jesus sent him straight home, telling him, “Don’t enter the village.”

Prayer

Healing God,
each of us too could say:
let me see again,
for I am blind to the love you show me
in the people around me.
Let me see again,
for I am blind to your splendor and beauty
that you reveal to me in your creation
and in the events of life.
Open my eyes to your goodness and mercy
that you display in good people.
May we hear from the lips of your Son:
“your faith has saved you.”
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.