Spit Happens

Today’s gospel is a beautiful trust walk. Jesus leads the blind man outside the city because he knew that not only was he going to touch his eyes, but also he would use his own spit to heal him and if the Pharisees witnessed this act of “uncleanliness”, it would have caused some serious scandal. While Jesus could handle the scandal he didn’t want to bring scandal to this man, his faithful friends, and his family, so he gently moved him to a more private place. I love the tenderness that we see in Jesus today. Meditate on it because it is a special and lovely scene.

When Jesus spit on the man’s eyes, I wonder if he spit into his own hands first or if he gently spit directly on his eyes. Both ways have an intimacy about them that reveals Jesus’ true nature. He wants and needs to be close to us. Jesus takes his own breath (or Spirit) and combines it with his own DNA (or spit) and places his very essence on this man’s eyes (on our broken hearts, or our wounded lives). He does it once, and then checks in with the man, “Can you see anything?” The man responds truthfully, yes, but things are still a little blurry. How powerful this exchange is. Healing is a process and it is Jesus, God Himself, who checks back in with him (and us) to see where he (and we) is (and are) in the healing process. When the man tells him he’s not there yet, Jesus goes in again and this time touches his eyes with his hands. He will never stop the healing process if we ask. This, my friends, is an excellent model of prayer. 

·     Begging for God to be near to us, to hold us, to touch us 

·     Receiving the grace that He breathes on our hurting lives 

·     Listening when God asks us where we are in the process 

·     Responding in faith and

·     Allowing God to finish the good work He began in us

His sight was restored and he saw everything. This indicates that the man could see before and he went blind rather than was born blind. It’s a good metaphor for how sin can steal our vision. Jesus sent him straight home and didn’t want him to go into the village, A. Share your blessings first and foremost with your family, B. He knew that the village would immediately begin to gossip over the scandalous way in which he was healed and Jesus really really really wants us to avoid this kind of behavior, and C. Jesus knows when he tells people to keep things a “secret” they will tell all and that was his plan. We need to tell people how we experience Christ in our lives. 

This sweet little scene has so much depth to it.

·     Let our faith be big enough to trust that Jesus will heal us just by being close

·     When he takes us by the hand he will lead us to a place where he can be intimate with us

·     Receive his Spirit when he gives it

·     God is constantly checking in with us

·     If we need further healing, don’t be afraid to ask

·     Eventually, we will be restored to the way we were before hurt and sin stole our sight. 

Spit happens and it is well with my soul.

Reading 1 GN 8:6-13, 20-22

At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark,
and he sent out a raven,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.
Then he sent out a dove,
to see if the waters had lessened on the earth.
But the dove could find no place to alight and perch,
and it returned to him in the ark,
for there was water all over the earth.
Putting out his hand, he caught the dove
and drew it back to him inside the ark.
He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark.
In the evening the dove came back to him,
and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf!
So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth.
He waited still another seven days
and then released the dove once more;
and this time it did not come back.

In the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life,
in the first month, on the first day of the month,
the water began to dry up on the earth.
Noah then removed the covering of the ark
and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up.

Noah built an altar to the LORD,
and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird,
he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself:
“Never again will I doom the earth because of man
since the desires of man’s heart are evil from the start;
nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done.
As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
Summer and winter,
and day and night
shall not cease.”

Responsorial Psalm PS 116:12-13, 14-15, 18-19

R.  (17a)  To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD. 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones. 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem. 
R. To you, Lord, I will offer a sacrifice of praise.
or:
R. Alleluia.

Alleluia SEE EPH 1:17-18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our hearts,
that we may know what is the hope
that belongs to his call.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 8:22-26

When Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethsaida,
people brought to him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.
He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village.
Putting spittle on his eyes he laid his hands on the man and asked,
“Do you see anything?”
Looking up the man replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.”
Then he laid hands on the man’s eyes a second time and he saw clearly;
his sight was restored and he could see everything distinctly.

Then he sent him home and said, “Do not even go into the village.”