Homily

THE SPIRITUAL SIGHT

November 19 Monday

33RD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Year-B

Readings: Rev 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Lk 18:35-43

We have physical sight. Do we have spiritual sight? There are those who see only what they want to see and disregard the rest. Then there are those who are colour blind that prevents them from seeing some dark areas in their life. Then there are those with spiritual cataract: they appear to see, but don’t actually see. There are those like the alcoholic father who can not see the misery he is causing to his wife and children. In many, there is also an inability to see the invisible conflict that goes on in creation between the spirit of evil and that of Christ. This conflict took the form of physical persecution for early Christians, and for us now, in the form of flaunting temptations by worldly values such as money and pleasure. The book of Revelation was written both for early Christians and for us, to help us open our spiritual eyes to see that Christ had already won the decisive victory over evil and death, a victory in which all people of faith will share. It is to announce his victory over evil that Jesus said to the blind man, “receive your sight; your faith has made you well” (Lk 18:42). Temptations of this world may be small in comparison to persecutions; but still we must fight against them. Little things are little things, but faithfulness in little things is a great thing.