God’s Ways

Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time A-1

Entrance Antiphon Cf. Ps 31 (30):3-4 Be my protector, O God, a mighty stronghold to save me. For you are my rock, my stronghold! Lead me, guide me, for the sake of your name.

Collect O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Scripture today: Genesis 8:6-13.20-22; Psalm 115; Mark 8:22-26

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spat on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, Do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people; they look like trees walking around. Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, Don't go into the village. (Mark 8:22-26)

God’s Ways I knew a very good Catholic family, one of the children of which caused a lot of worry to the parents. This worry went on for years, and the parents could not be faulted for their efforts and their love. A friend of theirs who also had a large family, reflecting on the sad experience of that family, observed that a lot of luck is involved in being free of such family problems. What she meant was that there seems to be no pattern to some of these things. Burdens of this scale can strike the best of families, and they can be absent from the best of families. It is an aspect of the mystery of the ways of God. A person suffering from a serious and intractable condition prays for the intercession of a person whose Cause for Beatification is proceeding, and a miracle of healing occurs. The suffering person becomes wonderfully whole and the event is eventually recognized formally as a miracle. Another person prays for the healing of an affliction and others join in the prayer for healing. The prayers keep up and go on for a long time. All it would take is the touch of God, yet no healing occurs. Why is this? We do not know. It is all part of the mystery of the ways of God. Everywhere, the fortunes of people vary enormously. One person works hard, obtains his Ph.D. and hopes to do well in his career and chosen speciality. But nothing comes of it. He never gets a position in which he can shine. He is never in the right place at the right time, and in any case is not particularly good at competing against others. So, despite his initial qualifications his life proceeds on a level that is very ordinary and quite below his potential. Another also obtains his Ph.D, but “as luck has it,” whatever he touches seems to turn to gold for him. He attracts the regard of his bosses, and is favoured with opportunities. He is able to shine in a way that never was possible for the former. There seems to be a law of the universe that in various respects some are favoured, and, relatively speaking, others are not. It seems unfair. Why is this? It is part of the mystery of the ways of God who is the Creator of all.

In our Gospel today our Lord and the Twelve arrive in Bethsaida, and we read that “some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.” The detail that all they asked for from Jesus is that he touch the blind man is revealing. They had no doubt about our Lord’s power. A mere touch would bring full restoration of sight. Elsewhere we read that people would merely touch the hem of his garments and they would receive healing, and we are given a detailed account of one instance of this. Unbeknown to the crowd, and in terms of his human intellect unbeknown to Jesus himself, a woman who had a long-standing physical affliction edged her way towards Jesus amid the pressing crowd. No one saw her, nor did Christ himself who was making his way (with difficulty) towards a dwelling where another was at the point of death, and very soon to die. She grasped the edge of his garment, and was healed of her infirmity. A profound feeling of wellbeing flooded her frame, and she knew that her affliction had gone. Christ had not touched her, but she had touched his garment. Our Lord thereupon stopped — for he could feel that healing power had gone forth from him — and we know the rest of what happened. The point is that it was widely understood that all a healing took was a touch from Christ, or a mere word from him, or that people in their turn touch him. It was an effortless thing for Christ to restore a person to perfect health, and indeed from death to life. He did precisely this with the young man of Nain who was restored from death to his widowed mother. And so it is that in our Gospel today, people come to our Lord with their blind friend and ask him to touch him and restore his sight. But what happened? It was not so simple. Our Lord led the blind man right out of the village and worked on it over several steps. We read that he “spat on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him.” Then Jesus asked, “Do you see anything? He looked up and said, I see people; they look like trees walking around. Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly” (Mark 8:22-26).

Why did our Lord do things this way? We do not know. It is part of the mystery of the ways of God. There were blind people, undoubtedly, who were not healed by Christ because they lacked the opportunity and means to come to him. We cannot possibly understand why God seems to favour some in certain ways and denies favouring others in those ways. But what we do know is that God is all-powerful, all-wise and all-loving. He is our Father, so whatever be our so-called “luck” in life, nothing in fact is mere “luck,” for all is in the care of our heavenly Father. Let us trust him, then!

(E.J.Tyler)

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