‘I came into this world,’ says Jesus Christ,
‘to fulfil judgment, that those who are blind may see,
and those who see, that they may become blind’.
The Lord Jesus said these words because of the healing of a man blind from birth, to whom He also restored the sight of the soul, in the face of the Pharisees, whom this miracle should have enlightened, but which, on the contrary, blinded them even more. The meaning of this judgment of the Saviour is very profound and applies to all of us; let us try to understand it with the help of grace.
We are all born blind, the result of unfortunate original sin. We know neither God nor ourselves. We know absolutely nothing about our destiny, that is, about the undeniably most important thing, or rather about the thing that should only occupy us. We do not know what true happiness consists in or what path we should take to reach it. This is a truth that the whole world admits. Let us remind ourselves what all peoples were before the coming of Jesus Christ and what those who do not know Him still are. But this is not where the greatest evil lies. We are blind, but we do not know it. Having come into the world with this disability, we think that we are perfectly well; and we would never have known our blindness if God, who became man, had not come into the world to lead us out of it.
The greatest evil is to think you can see when you cannot see at all. This is what happened to the supposed wise men of the pagans, and in the Jews to the proud Pharisees.
Although the Christian faith has enlightened us in the most important subjects, it has not completely cured our blindness. As long as self-reason and self-love exist in us, we will be blind in many respects, both to God and to ourselves.
As far as God is concerned, we do not completely understand his ways; we create for ourselves a false idea of holiness; we do not know what true virtue consists in. As for ourselves, we do not know our own inner disposition: we see everything in others, but do not see our own faults; we judge ourselves completely falsely.
Because this blindness affects the soul, it does not and cannot know it (for how can it see by itself what it does not see?); this is a great evil, but for which there is a remedy.
God’s light removes blindness easily, if it is not voluntary; but how can it conquer blindness which man does not wish to admit? How can it enlighten the proud, who think they see that they do not need it?
How can light penetrate minds that are prejudiced, full of superstition, stubbornly rejecting what the light of God shows them; minds that see everything in a false light that they have created for themselves? This is a weakness that happens very often among pious people; and since its source is pride, it puts up a resistance to grace that only humiliation can break, and which cannot always be overcome.
Jesus Christ, the light of the world, came to cure us of our blindness. But in this he fulfils a judgment full of kindness for some, and towards others he exercises a judgment of justice.
He gives sight to those who have not seen, and blinds those who can see.
What do these words mean? Among the people whom the Saviour has come to enlighten, do some see and others do not see? No; all are blind. But some, enlightened by grace, recognise their sad state and admit that they are blind, asking Him earnestly for healing; such Jesus enlightens and does not cease to enlighten them as long as they use His light and follow it. Others refuse to admit that they are blind; such are left by the Saviour in a blindness that becomes incurable.
There are also those who appropriate the light God gives them, attributing it to themselves as if they owed it to themselves. To such, as a punishment, Jesus takes away the light: either they use for evil the light given to them from God, or they neglect it; they fear the light, avoid it, and thus deserve to be deprived of it.
To which number do we belong and to which number do we want to belong?
Woe to us if we trust in our own reason, if we want to judge for ourselves the ways of God and want to govern ourselves! God will leave us to ourselves!
What can happen to a blind man who governs himself? Nothing else but a fall into the abyss. Woe to us if we misappropriate the light that God gives us, if we regard it as our own property, if we boast of it and hence lift ourselves up in pride. God will not forgive us for this theft and will deprive us of the good we have appropriated.
Woe to us if we are unwilling to know what He requires of us because we are not ready to give everything to Him. Others will receive the favours we were destined to receive and instead of progressing, we will regress.
Let us imitate the blind man whom the Holy Gospel mentions; let us be convinced that we are constantly surrounded by darkness and that we have no means of coming out of that darkness ourselves. Let us constantly say, let us cry out to Jesus Christ: ‘Lord, make me see. Enlighten me yourself or through him whom you have given me as a guide’. If we think about something, let us fear lest we ourselves resolve the doubt; let us beware lest we follow the pull of nature, lest we succumb to the stirrings of passion, lest we be ruled by superstition, by human considerations; but let us humbly ask God to enlighten us, to show us the truth and give us strength to act according to it. Let us endeavour to keep our minds continually ready to receive the grace of God, and be assured that if grace for a moment forsakes us, we shall not escape the fall.
This is not yet enough: let us thank God for the graces he gives us. Let us not rely on our reason or on our perspicacity and foresight. Divine things are comprehended only by the spirit of God. God is pleased to enlighten simple souls, convinced of their ignorance, attributing nothing to themselves; souls who do not judge anything according to themselves, but refer everything to God as the source of all knowledge.
O! if we knew how dangerous it is to trust in our reason, how God seeks to humble our reason, to crush it; we would strive strenuously to renounce it altogether, and to sacrifice it to God: we would rejoice that we are incapable of foreseeing anything, of devising anything, or of pronouncing a word, or of having a good thought, or of passing judgment on ourselves, but that in all this we depend on the stirrings of God’s spirit – we would endeavour that our mind should always be ready to receive God’s action, and we would subdue every thought coming from ourselves.
Prayer is then best, and the state of the soul most perfect, when the reason works as little as possible; this is proof that God has possessed it and wants to be its master. Let us not complain that this state is distressing. It is a state of blindness brought about by the light of God; then one understands nothing clearly; but, with the help of this light, one sees clearly in times of need what one should do. What more is needed? Is not the tranquillity of the mind, being in complete dependence on God, better than the working of one’s own reason, independently of God?
Finally, let us use the light God gives us to know our wretchedness and to humble ourselves because of it; to know what God demands of us and to fulfil His will; to know our faults in order to improve from them.
Let us not be afraid when God demands of us that which is opposed to us and difficult for us to fulfil, because of our weakness. Let us not turn away from the mirror that shows us our imperfections; let us love the truth that warns us and believe that, after knowing God, the most necessary thing is: to know ourselves. Let us be convinced, moreover, that we cannot know God otherwise than by knowing our nothingness. These are two chasms, one of which summons the other, according to the expression of Sacred Scripture. Being blind to both these objects in which everything is contained for us, let us say with Saint Augustine: make me know you, Lord, and know myself!
Fr Nicholas Grou SI, Guide to the path of spiritual life, Krakow 1907.
Catholic during the Great Apostasy 
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