Sunday
The indispensable blog Journey with Jesus has given me today’s poem, David Whyte’s “The Opening of Eyes.” Dan Clendenin has chosen it because seeing, both literal and metaphorical, is the subject of today’s Gospel reading, which is about Jesus healing the blind man. It concludes with Jesus chastising the pharisees, who have been berating the man for testifying about the miracle:
Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
Here’s Whyte’s poem, in which the speaker realizes that the kingdom of God has always been here and now. If we pay attention, we will see that the bush is always burning and that God is always speaking to us. We think that God is elsewhere but, when we take off our shoes to enter heaven, we find that God is the ground on which we are already standing. We have but to open our eyes—truly open them–to understand this.
The Opening of Eyes
By David Whyte
That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.
It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.
It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.
