Tuesday in Ordinary Time (9th week), June 5, 2007

Scripture: Tobit 2:9-3:1. Psalm 112. Mark 12:13-17. Lectionary # 354:

Today's newspaper had a photo of the Rev. Johannes Christian, a Baptist
minister in Columbus, Ohio. The headline read, "After a tragedy left
Rv.Dr.J.Christian blind, he is using his pain to teach others about the
road to forgiveness." He says, "Forgiveness is an easy word to say, but it
is a hard thing to do." His blindness occured several years ago when a 12
year old youth who was angry with God and said he made a pact with the
devil, threw a rock which hit Dr. Christian's windshield and blinded him.
The two met recently and are reconciled. As I read about Tobit's accidental
blindness caused by a freak accident of nature--a bird's droppings fell
into his eyes as he slept in the open air. His own sorrow is compounded
when his righteousness calls into question the honesty of his wife in
getting a goat for sewing a cloth for someone. She scolds him and he
finally realizes that she is honest. His own sadness, his scupulosity, and
depression probably account for his uneasiness and distrust. Then in the
Gospel for today, I applied the lesson from Rev. Dr. Christian and Tobit to
what Jesus was trying to teach his religious opponents and political
oppressors-- a lesson on inward vision through the eyes of faith. They
again were trying to trap Jesus when they asked whether it was right to pay
taxes to Caesar, the emperor. He asks them to show him a coin and they
present one with the image of Caesar Augustus upon it. They see it belongs
to the emperor and therefore they are to pay taxes with such a coin. They
are able to answer Jesus correctly about the image on the coin for they
have physical vision, but they miss the point of Jesus' teaching because
they have no inward vision of faith. Jesus and Tobit have this interior
vision and see the bigger picture of God's loving plan of salvation. Just
like Dr.Christian teaches us today how to forgive and how to use pain that
endures as a way of continuing to preach God's goodness. Our own lives need
to be guided by the vision of our eyes of faith. As one of the Blessed
says, "The essential is the interior life." (Blessed William Joseph
Chaminade, Founder of the Marianists). We pray today for those who have
lost their physical vision and those who need spiritual vision. We pray
for our own growth through the eyes of faith. Finally, I was reminded of a
striking script in the film "The Raging Bull", the story of a boxer who was
used and trapped by those managing the sport. The citation is : "And some
of the religious leaders who were with him said, 'Are we blind also?' Jesus
said unto them, "If you were blind you should have no sin. But now you are
saying, 'We see'. Therefore, your sin remains." (John 9:40-41).