Carmelite homily for Wednesday, February 19, 2020 – Lectionary 337 (Mark 8:22-26)
In today’s Gospel we have a very interesting passage. The people from the village of Bethsaida bring to Jesus a blind man. And Jesus heals him – it takes two tries – and concludes with the line, “Do not even go back into the village.” Why? The purpose of all Jesus’ healings is to allow people back into the village, back to their families, back to society because the blind, the unclean, the lepers, the lame were all kept outside the village for health reasons. So why would Jesus tell this man to not go back? There must be something wrong with the village. That if he goes back, all the problems come back. So, I think, the call of today’s Gospel – are we part of the problem? – is to check out our own village. Are we adding to it or are we suffering from it? Let’s clean up the village. It’s really the call of today’s Gospel.