I have always been interested in construction and mechanical things. I have fed my brain a lot of information through sight, and being present as things were being repaired or built. There is a different method for building or repairing different materials and I was thinking of my first encounter with steel and its fabrication. “Look away” were the words forcibly sent my way as I walked up on someone welding. I had always wondered just how this heavy substrate was shaped and joined. But the bright sparks from a welding rod can damage our eyesight and the welder must wear protective gear to prevent this, so if you are near welding, look away!
Over the years being present when welders were at work in the garage, farm or on construction sites. I must have accidentally fed my eyes that bright UV light from the welding rod a time or two. One visit to the optometrist years later to have some construction debris removed from my eye, I was told that I had a scar on my cornea, most-likely from a welding arc. It had a negative effect on my ability to focus.
Now for those of us with good vision, we sure do gather a lot of information with our eyesight. We can feed our nous with psalms, scripture and saintly readings or we cut that light source off by filling our eyes with the darkness that only comes from the evil one, leaving a scar on our light gathering eyes. And then we can look at each other with envious and hateful vision instead of love. We can wallow around with unclean pictures and videos like a hog in the muck, and strangle the created light that feeds our souls.
Our Lord speaks on this today as we heard from the Gospel of Luke: “And Jesus said to him, “Recover thy sight; thy faith hath made thee well. And immediately he recovered his sight, and began following Him, glorifying God. And all the people, having seen it, gave praise to God.” [Lk. 18:40--43] Saint Kyril explains these verses this way: “He was set free, therefore, from double blindness; for not only did he escape bodily blindness, but also from that of the mind and heart. For he would not have glorified Him as God had he not possessed spiritual vision. And further, he became the means of others also giving Him glory.” [Ib., 501.]
And there is the remedy, “recover thy sight, thy faith has made thee well”! It takes repentance. We have to want to be closer to Christ than we are right now, unless of course you are happy in darkness or in the muck. For a Christian, it is a daily battle in which we all have triumphs and defeats. Pick yourselves up again and again and be prepared to fight another day. Strengthen your arsenal with prayer, fasting, scripture, almsgiving of your time and talent. And most importantly, helping and lifting each other up when others are weak and wounded.
The opponent we battle is fierce and can only be conquered when we fight like a well-trained militia. We are family, we are BLOOD kin! Mess with one of us, you will mess with us all! We are the church militant! The ole folks say that when times get tough, you can only count on family, well some of them anyway! And that is what we are, I’ve got your back and you’ve got mine! We all have the same sacrificial Mother, and we all were formed from the same clay. We are learning to love each other as Christ does! "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)
The darkness of the world will not defeat us! The tomb is empty!! Christ will return!!! Be prepared! St. Paul writes, "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:12-14).
Look away, and heal those scars from our darkened eyes with repentance and healing found at the chalice, “Thy faith has made thee well!”
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