Sunday of the Blind Man

[Vasileios]

Last Sunday was the Sunday of the Blind Man. While at dinner with my parents, my father told me an interpretation that I had not heard before and thought it was very intersting, so in case someone else has not heard of it, I thought I'd share.

The blind man was blind since birth. My father told me this meant he did not have eyes at all, as that is a very usual case and that would explain the tremendous impression this particular miracle caused. As we know Christ healed a great deal of blind people but this one is overemphasized.
When Christ made clay and put them on his empty sockets, he literally repeated the act of Creation, thus not only working an amazing miracle, but also affirming that He is the Creator of Man.
I must say, I really am impressed with this interpretation and it somehow makes perfect sense. And it is so great to still learn completely new things from such familiar stories.

This of course was not an interpretation of my dad's, but unfortuantely he could not remember which Holy Father was the first to come with it. He also said that this was shared by other fathers as well, although we could not verify this.

Anyone else heard of this? And if so, does anyone know which Father came up with it?
What do you think?

[Matrona]

I think it was St. Basil, but I'll have to check on that.

[Anatole]

I have heard that before,our priest gives the same interpretation.

[RobNJ]

From the OCA site:
Sunday of the Blind Man
Commemorated on May 13

After the Midfeast (John 7:14), the Lord Jesus Christ came to the Temple again and taught the people who came to Him (John 8:2). After leaving the Temple, He opened the eyes of a man "who was blind from his birth (John 9:1).

The miracle described in today's Gospel (John 9:1-38) is even more remarkable than it might seem at first.St Basil and other Fathers tell us that this was not just a case of giving sight to a blind man born with eyes that did not function, but to someone who had no eyes at all! The second Exapostilarion for this Sunday says, "Along the way, our Savior found a man who lacked both sight and eyes…."

The Gospel says, "Since the world began, it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one who was born blind" (John 9:32). There are examples in the Old (Tobit 2:17) and New (Mark 8:22-26) Testaments of blind people receiving sight, but this is something completely unprecedented.

The Savior placed clay in the man's empty sockets and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When he obeyed these instructions, the eyes of clay became living eyes!

In his MENAION, St Demetrius of Rostov calls the blind man St Celidonius (see his account of St Lazarus in the Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles on January 4).

[Michael the Iconographer]

I have never heard that interpretation, thank you.

[copticorthodoxy]

I heared it before from our Coptic Orthodox tradition

[ProfChrysostomos]

Indeed, the patristic interpretation for this is very interesting, but the Fathers take it a step further to indicate the dangers of spiritual blindness, caused by a lack of faith.

To lack faith is to make a choice, namely, to deny one's God-given capacity to believe. Faith is a gift of God to each person, something which some Fathers associate as being a part of God's image in man. Man may reject using the gift or accept it, but the gift remains in man, since God freely gives it and denies taking it back.

Blessings,

+ Prof.