BY FR. ROY CIMAGALA
WE SHOULD try to make these words of the blind man asking Christ for a cure for his blindness (cfr. Lk 18, 41) as an aspiration that we can repeat many times during the day.
We cannot deny that despite our tremendous powers to see and understand things, there are still many things that escape our notice, let alone, our understanding. And going to God, begging him to let us see things, should only be our recourse.
Though we may enjoy good vision at the moment, we have to realize that to be able to see things properly and completely, we simply do not rely on our eyes nor any of our senses.
Our eyes and senses can only capture a little part of the whole reality that governs us. They can only perceive what are called the sensible realities, still light-years away from the intelligible, not to mention the spiritual and supernatural aspects of reality.
Still, what they get and gather are very useful and in fact are indispensable, since the data they give are like the raw materials that will be processed by our more powerful faculties of intelligence and will. In this sense we can already consider ourselves as suffering from some kind of blindness.
We need to be more aware that nowadays there is a strong tendency to base our knowledge of things mainly on the material and sensible realities alone. That’s why we have these disturbing phenomena of materialism and commercialism comprising our mainstream world of knowledge and understanding.
We have to correct this tendency because that simply is not the whole of reality. Our senses can only have a limited view of things. And what is worse, that limited condition is aggravated by the effects and consequences of our sins that not only limit but also distort reality.
For this to happen, we have to be determined to pray, even if some people would like to discourage us, thinking that we would be bothering God, just like what some people did to the blind man in the gospel.
With prayer, we connect ourselves with God, and with God we can see and understand things much better. Whatever fears, worries, insecurities we have at the moment would somehow disappear, and we would be willing to face anything in life with confidence.
Let’s always remember that God is our father who always cares for us. And he makes possible what is impossible to us. We should always strengthen this truth of our faith, so that we avoid falling into unnecessary worries in our life’s drama.
With prayer, we can feel confident and invincible against any trial and challenge we can face in life. And instead of being entangled with these worries and fears, we can give more attention to what we ought to do to pursue the main purpose of life, which is that of personal sanctification through our ordinary work and duties, and the accompanying duty to do apostolate.
Let’s reassure everyone that prayer is the key to making our life filled with peace and joy, invested with a sense of purpose and meaning. Our problem nowadays is that many people do not really know how to pray, and prefer to depend solely on their human powers which can only do so much. They cannot go the distance.
Like the blind man, let’s always go to God and repeat our appeal: “Lord, that I may see!”/PN
