I see people looking like trees and walking

Gn 8,6-13.20-22; Ps 115; Mk 8,22-26
20 FEBRUARY

We can compare the healing of the blind man to the creation of the man operated by the Lord. The Holy Scripture tells us in Chapter II of genesis that first God took the dust of the ground and formed the man with it. First phase of his work. Then he breathed the breath of life into his nostrils and man became a living being. Two phases, two moments and two actions of the Lord. To make man, God makes use of creation and of himself.

Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. At the time when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens – while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the Lord God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground – the Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. A river rises in Eden to water the garden; beyond there it divides and becomes four branches. The name of the first is the Pishon; it is the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is excellent; bdellium and lapis lazuli are also there. The name of the second river is the Gihon; it is the one that winds all through the land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it is the one that flows east of Asshur. The fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die” (Gen 2,4-17).

What does Jesus want to teach us through healing the blind in two stages? He takes some men from the dust of humanity. They are his Apostles. He walks about three years with them. Is he able to open their eyes so that they see his mystery? No. But he leads them to see something. They see Christ in the same way as the blind man. They see him as a walking tree. They see a movement. But they do not know how to distinguish the traits of the person. They know that there is a mystery, but they do not know the mystery. They see Jesus, but they are not able to yet identify him. Here is the second moment. Jesus rises again. He opens their minds to the knowledge of Scriptures. They start to see better. The Holy Spirit descends on them, their life begins to become acute. They can distinguish every detail of his being and his life. But all of Ancient Scripture is a perennial addition of light to light, truth to truth, mystery to mystery and revelation to revelation. History belongs to man. The history of conversion, sanctification and purification is long, very long for every man. It begins, but ends only with death. The path of our conformation to Christ never ends. It ends only with our death. Until that moment, you walk towards.

When they arrived at Bethsaida, they brought to him a blind man and begged him 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 him and asked, “Do you see anything?” Looking up he replied, “I see people looking like trees and walking.” Then he laid hands on his 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.”

If the Lord has taken about eighteen hundred years to prepare his people so that his Messiah and Saviour would be born from it, if for Jesus it took three years of manifestation and revelation of his mystery so that his Apostles saw him as a walking tree, if he then had to breathe his Holy Spirit on them so that he were seen in his most pure truth, can we think that with some words, and not even evangelical, we can solve the question of the formation of man so that he sees the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the sacraments, the Gospel and the Word according to very pure truth, in a very short time? A lifetime is not enough. Time is an essential element in giving true sight to the blind.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints make us discover the preciousness in time in the works of God.