On healing the sight.

 Today in church I was concerned with things that had nothing to do with the sermon. I'm always thinking about Jesus these days in one way or another. For instance, I was very happy to think of some things that I would have confessed and seen them in the Bible and in church. 

What I mean to say is, I have actually been being good without any nonsense, instead, trying to focus continually on the good so that it can keep improving me.

But I have guilt. I was very unhappy to have, for instance, once not let a nice old lady come and stay in my apartment. She was older, Russian (an immigrant) and very harmless seeming. But I had a broken mirror in my bedroom where she could have stayed and I was staying in the living room, excuses, excuses... more than anything, I feared her. Even though she was more innocent looking than my grandmother.

So I was scared of her. And I felt bad. Because there is no love in that. And then I saw it in the Bible the next day in Isaiah that someone might say at some point, "You have clothes..." and it was true to me. My feeling was, I am not in such a good position myself. The verse goes on to say something like "I have no more than you" and that was part of it as well, as I had not given to some who asked of me. 3:7. If you look it up beware the different translations. 

Then today I felt self conscious about wearing a head covering, which I have started to do out of piety. And the Gospel stated something very important that I may have missed otherwise. 

Today was the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist. John said TO Jesus when Jesus came to be baptised that he should be baptized by Jesus, surely he had nothing to offer to Our Lord! Instead, Jesus, said no, we must do these things (lest they think they don't have to or for other reasons) because it is righteous things we do. 

Indeed I have made excuses for what I do based on Jesus behavior. But perhaps it is also the very act which was so important for Jesus. He showed them there how the spirit came upon him.

God says, "this one is my son"...

Biblical mysteries are always interesting. I'm baptized. It cleared the original sin from me. Perhaps it is good to do so if you haven't. And if you have, the occasional cross with holy water is not all that bad. They think it keeps away vampires!

In the middle of all this I thought about pearls of wisdom. And I realized that there are real and fake pearls. At one point I envisioned ground pearls on the eyes of the blind, to cure them. Of course Jesus used spittle and mud. 

After they read the Gospel in a Catholic church the priest speaks. Sermons are always written by the priest as a speech, but otherwise the whole mass is pretty regular and ritual. He started to tell about the shame of Jesus, and I can think on this a bit now, I missed it thinking of other things. But basically he showed us that the man who accepted John's baptism was killed like a common criminal on a cross. Perhaps naked. And that was our God.

In Rome that was probably infinitely foolish. Their Gods were able to do many things,  even having relations with human women. But none were alive and killed on a cross by their (human) authority. 

Somehow, in spite of this, the message resonated. It is said often that Jesus saying what he said about himself was either insane or true. That he was Messiah and king. But his death and resurrection have a similar effect, and are held by the church, and by his own word, as the most important of proofs. 

So I may have been offtrack but I see what was happening there. Much of what we gained from Jesus was his spirit spread through the disciples. The mystery at the Jordan remains. But in these mysteries are things which increase, 10 fold! sometimes, sometimes as they are put into practice, as they work in your life. 

What first seems like a practical thing to do is mystical and wonderful as the spirit descends "like a dove", which happens to us when we share in the memory of his resurrection. Even at the Eucharist.

And it is so neat to read stories of people who have experienced this as a miracle, even a little child, if you search it online, because I can't add links now for some reason, she was given a special permission to get communion young because she was ill, and her little face was said to shine!

Such wonderful stuff. 

So we can think that there is a humble and honorable man who said, "I will give peaceful kingdoms to all lands".  And he did. And it is amazing!