St John Chapter ix : Verses 35-41
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| I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out: and when he had found him, he said to him: Dost thou believe in the Son of God?
36 He answered, and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?
37 And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen him; and it is he that talketh with thee.
38 And he said: I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him.
39 And Jesus said: For judgment I am come into this world; that they who see not, may see; and they who see, may become blind.
40 And some of the Pharisees, who were with him, heard: and they said unto him: Are we also blind?
41 Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remaineth.
35 ⸀Ἤκουσεν Ἰησοῦς ὅτι ἐξέβαλον αὐτὸν ἔξω, καὶ εὑρὼν αὐτὸν ⸀εἶπεν· Σὺ πιστεύεις εἰς τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ⸀ἀνθρώπου;35 Audivit Jesus quia ejecerunt eum foras : et cum invenisset eum, dixit ei : Tu credis in Filium Dei?36 ἀπεκρίθη ἐκεῖνος καὶ εἶπεν· Καὶ τίς ἐστιν, κύριε, ἵνα πιστεύσω εἰς αὐτόν;36 Respondit ille, et dixit : Quis est, Domine, ut credam in eum?37 ⸀εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Καὶ ἑώρακας αὐτὸν καὶ ὁ λαλῶν μετὰ σοῦ ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν.37 Et dixit ei Jesus : Et vidisti eum, et qui loquitur tecum, ipse est.38 ὁ δὲ ἔφη· Πιστεύω, κύριε· καὶ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ.38 At ille ait : Credo, Domine. Et procidens adoravit eum.39 καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Εἰς κρίμα ἐγὼ εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον ἦλθον, ἵνα οἱ μὴ βλέποντες βλέπωσιν καὶ οἱ βλέποντες τυφλοὶ γένωνται.39 Et dixit Jesus : In judicium ego in hunc mundum veni : ut qui non vident videant, et qui vident caeci fiant.40 ⸀ἤκουσαν ἐκ τῶν Φαρισαίων ταῦτα οἱ ⸂μετ’ αὐτοῦ ὄντες⸃, καὶ εἶπον αὐτῷ· Μὴ καὶ ἡμεῖς τυφλοί ἐσμεν;40 Et audierunt quidam ex pharisaeis qui cum ipso erant, et dixerunt ei : Numquid et nos caeci sumus?41 εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Εἰ τυφλοὶ ἦτε, οὐκ ἂν εἴχετε ἁμαρτίαν· νῦν δὲ λέγετε ὅτι Βλέπομεν· ⸀ἡ ἁμαρτία ὑμῶν μένει.41 Dixit eis Jesus : Si caeci essetis, non haberetis peccatum. Nunc vero dicitis, Quia videmus : peccatum vestrum manet.
Annotations
35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out: and when he had found him, he said to him: Christ received him kindly, and rewards his constancy. Having given sight to his body, He now enlightens his mind. In giving him bodily sight, He had cast in some scattered seeds of faith, which He now particularly forms into perfect shape: so as to make him believe, that He whom he looked upon as a mere prophet, for having given him sight, was God also, and the Son of God. The Gloss says, “The blind man had already a heart prepared to believe, but knew not in whom he had to believe.” This, in answer to his question, he learns from Christ.
Christ took trouble to find him in the place, where He knew he was.
👉 It is the part of a good shepherd to seek for a wandering sheep, who cannot by itself come back into the right way.
“They expel,” says S. Augustine (in loc.), “the Lord receives, and he becomes a Christian, even the more because he was expelled.”
Dost thou believe in the Son of God? Christ did not demand faith from the blind man for the healing of his body, but He does for the healing of his soul: for, as S. Augustine says (Serm. xv. de Verb. Apost.), “He who made thee without thyself, doth not justify thee without thyself: He made thee without thy knowledge, He justifies thee through thy will.”
37. And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen him; and it is he that talketh with thee. Thou seest him now for the first time, for he had been healed in the pool of Siloam, when Christ was not there. Christ therefore points out to him that it was He who restored his sight. He recalls his healing to his remembrance, says Theophylact, and that he had received the gift of sight from Him, so as to make him believe that He was not only the Son of man, but the Son of God.
38. And he said: I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him. And he worshipped Him, as the Son of God, and very God, to be worshipped as God with the worship due to Him (latria). Moreover, the blind man, inwardly enlightened (and moved to it by Christ), by saying, “I believe,” brought out acts of hope, contrition, charity, devotion, and adoration towards Christ, and was by them cleansed from his sins and justified.
👉He consequently became a holy and apostolic man. He was said to have been one of the seventy disciples, and to have become Bishop of Aix, in Provence, where he died and was buried by the side of Maximinus, to whom he had been coadjutor (see Peter de Natalis in Cat. Sanctorum, lib. v. cap. 102).
39. And Jesus said: For judgment I am come into this world; that they who see not, may see; and they who see, may become blind. “That is for condemnation,” says S. Cyril, “to convict and condemn the proud and worldly Pharisees of blindness who seem in their own sight to be wise.”
But others explain it better, not of condemnation, but of inquiry and discrimination. I have come into the world to discriminate and separate believers from unbelievers, good from evil, godly from ungodly; in order that the people, who before had lived in ignorance of God and of salvation, and in darkness of mind, like this blind man, might by believing in Me be enlightened with the knowledge of God, and of things which concern their salvation; and that I might suffer the proud who refuse to believe in Me (like the Pharisees who are puffed up by their knowledge of the law) to be blinded, and might convict them of their blindness.
(2.) But judgment might possibly here mean the secret counsel and mysterious decree of God, determined and fixed by His righteous decree, whereby God ordained that the Gentiles who knew not God, and consequently were blind, might behold the Light of Faith in Christ, and humbly and eagerly accept it; while the Scribes and Pharisees and wise men of the world, puffed up by their own knowledge, might become darkened in unbelief, and reject the faith and enlightenment of Christ. Humility, therefore, enlightened by faith the unlearned Gentiles, who submitted themselves to Christ, while pride darkened with unbelief the learned Scribes who rejected Him. So S. Cyril, or rather Clictoveus, who filled up what was wanting in his commentary. (See Rom. xi. 33.) “His judgments are a great deep.” Theodoret applies this to Paul and Judas. For 👉S. Paul having been blind received his sight, and ➤Judas, after seeing, became blind. The words “that,” “therefore,” &c., frequently signify not the cause, but the result or consequence. For Christ came not in order that the Scribes should be made blind; but their blindness was a result of Christ’s preaching, not from anything on His part, but from their own pride and fault. So Cyril and others.
40. And some of the Pharisees, who were with him, heard: and they said unto him: Are we also blind? The Pharisees felt themselves sharply touched by our Lord’s words, which they understood to speak not of the blindness of the body, but of the mind. They knew that they were not bodily blind, and therefore if He had said this, they would have hooted Him down as a fool. They said, Are we blind also? Hast thou come to give sight to those who are blind in body, and to make out that we who spiritually see, and are doctors of the law, are blind and foolish? Show us our blindness and foolishness.
41. Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remaineth. (1.) S. Chrysostom. Theophylact, and Euthymius explain this of bodily blindness; meaning, If ye were blind in your bodies, ye would be less proud and sinful. For bodily blindness would humble your mind. (2.) S. Augustine (in loc.) is more to the point. If ye were blind in your own opinion, if ye would acknowledge yourselves to be blind (i.e., ignorant and foolish) in things which concern your salvation, ye would not have sin, for ye would seek a remedy for it, and would obtain it from Me.
(3.) Accurately and scholastically, If ye were blind through ignorance of Scripture and the law of nature, ye would not have sin, by acting according to this ignorance and not acknowledging Me as your Messiah. That is to say, If your ignorance were clearly without blame and invincible, ye would have some sin, but one which was less serious, and more excusable, and therefore ye might easily be enlightened and cured by Me, since My doctrine would dispel your ignorance. But now ye say to yourselves, “We see,” that is, ye think ye see, and are so wise as to be excellent judges of Christ’s advent and person. And therefore ye from your arrogant and evil thoughts continue in the sin of unbelief against Me; ye obstinately set your mind against Me, and thus refuse to believe in Me as the Messiah, though I have demonstrated that I am by very many signs and miracles. And therefore, ye cannot by any possibility be enlightened and healed by Me, because ye obstinately refuse to hear Me. So Jansen and others.
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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