To be healed

What struck me in this week’s Gospel is the passage of scripture Jesus read in Nazara, his hometown. He was sent to “bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight.” (from the Jerusalem Bible)  For Jesus to do that to us, we need to admit that we are poor, captive and blind.  It is easy for us to admit those things when we are in crisis, personal or otherwise.  However, when we find ourselves in pleasant times, can we admit them as well?

We can be materially comfortable yet poor in our spirit, poor in our emotional dealings with others, or poor in our relationship with God, just to name a few examples.  We can be held captive by sin.  We can be held captive by bad habits.  We can be held captive by our pride, not being able to see that there may be more than one way of looking at things besides our own.  We can be blind in the sense that we are not sensitive enough to the things that are happening around us, even with the people we love, the people we are most familiar with.  The converse can be true: we pay attention to the little things that we become blind to the larger picture.  Was there not a saying: Cannot see the forest for the trees?  Can we admit that even with a 20/20 sight, we can be blind?

This is where the good news come in.  Jesus has come to bring us out of our poverty, captivity and blindness.  The thing is, unless we can admit our being poor, being held captive and being blind, we will not be able to accept the help of Jesus.  And if we cannot accept help from Jesus, can we truly help others in need?  Can we truly be able to continue the mission of Jesus as Christians?

Let us take the time to consider our poverty, captivity and blindness.  Then by admitting that we are, open our hearts to the aid, healing and grace of Christ.