the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free” (Is. 35, 5. 6).
The cause of unbelief. In spite of all their efforts, the Pharisees could not disprove the miraculous cure of the man born blind. Why, then, did they not believe in it? Because they had not the will to believe and receive the truth. The great truth that Jesus is God was, it may almost be said, forced on them with violence, but they resolutely shut their eyes to it. Why did they thus refuse to see and believe? Because they hated our Lord. They had got it once for all into their heads that the Messias would come as a great liberator and conqueror who would enable them to realize their political aspirations. Jesus was poor and humble, redeeming the people only from sin and death, and their sensual nature refused to acknowledge any such Messias. Added to this there must be taken into consideration their own personal interests. They had been, hitherto, the acknowledged leaders of the people, who honoured them as the models of virtue and justice. Jesus would not admit this justice of theirs, and ruthlessly showed up their hypocrisy. The greater the following of Jesus, the less was their own; and thus it was that their self-interest as well as their pride made them hostile to our Lord. Under no circumstances would they themselves acknowledge Him as the Messias, and they used every means to prevent the people from doing so. Thus, even before this miracle and their examination of it, they had issued an edict that any one who should say that our Lord was the Christ should be put out of the synagogue. They would not believe; nor would they have believed, if Jesus had worked even greater miracles than He did.
Increase of faith. The man born blind corresponded with grace. He obeyed Jesus, believing that He was able to cure him by the washing of his eyes in the pool of Siloe. The cure, when obtained, increased his faith, and he was convinced that Jesus was a prophet sent by God, who had received power from Him. He suffered persecution on account of his faith, and thus obtained the further grace of hearing from our Lord’s own lips that He was the Son of God. The man born blind received not only the natural gift of sight, but with it the supernatural gift of faith. Our Lord’s miracle was the cause of salvation to him, whereas it was the cause of ruin to the Pharisees, and served only to harden them in their obstinacy.
Confession of faith. The man born blind confessed his faith in Jesus most courageously and unwaveringly. His parents allowed themselves to be intimidated, but he feared neither the anger nor the threats of the Pharisees, and permitted nothing to turn him from the truth, or lead him to contradict his own words.
Effects of holy Baptism. The pool of Siloe, by washing in which the blind man received his sight, was a type of Baptism, by the washing of which those who are born spiritually blind through original sin,
