Back in August, I shared how my eleven year-old son helped me get back into the practice of reading Scripture each night before I went to bed. A couple of thoughts occurred to me last night as I read an acount of one of Jesus' miracles in the Gospel of John:
[Jesus said,] "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Having said this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man [who was blind from birth]'s eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing." (Jn.9:5-7)
It is an amazing miracle - but what's with the saliva, right? Last night my mind traveled back to the Bible's earliest chapters: "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (Gen.2:7). When Jesus healed the man born blind, it was as if He was perfecting what had been askew in the in utero development of this man's ability to see. In this simple action of combining His saliva - the saliva of the God-Man - with the dust of the ground, the Lord was recalling the Creation Story. And then He took it to the next level.
By sending the man to wash in the Pool of Siloam, Jesus gave us a sign of Baptism that raises us above natural life, to supernatural! The waters of Baptism restore us to the dignity of Children of God - the gift given to, but lost, by our first parents. They impart the supernatural life of the God-Man to our own souls and begin the process that will ultimately lead to the healing of all of our bodily ills as well, in the Resurrection! Jesus' saliva mixed with the dust, the waters of Siloam - it all speaks of how God uses the things of this world to impart not just natural, but supernatural life! It's the sacramental principle.
Awhile back, one of my closest friends started reading Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light
. My friend, who is Lutheran, soon asked me if I
could explain something to her: it seemed very strange that Mother
Teresa, who God was clearly speaking to and giving a mission, would have
to go and receive permission to undertake the work from her religious
superiors. At first her superiors made her delay. Why would Teresa
submit to that, when she knew God was speaking to her?
What a
fantastic question! Looking back, my response was alright. I talked
about how it was a mark of humility, and a safeguard against being
deceived, to submit inspirations and private revelations to those God
has allowed to assume roles of authority within a religious body. I also
shared how, in private revelations to nuns and religious brothers,
Jesus often instructs the recipients that they must always submit
themselves to their religious superiors, even when it means delaying His
requested action. These nuns and brothers took a vow of obedience when
they entered their respective orders, and the Lord insists that it be
adhered to. But what I failed to point out, the very heart of the
matter, was what St. Anthony of Padua saw in the Gospel read a few weeks
back on the Feast of the Holy Family. (My thanks to the Daily Gospel apostolate for emailing such quality commentary every day of the year.)
Jesus
was twelve years old and stayed behind in Jerusalem following a family
trip there, without notifying his parents. After three days of frantic
searching Mary and Joseph finally found Him in the Temple:
"Son,
why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking
for you anxiously." And he said to them, "How is it that you sought me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And they did not
understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them
and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all
these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in
stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:48-52)
St. Anthony's commentary here is just gorgeous:
“He
was subject to them.” With these words let all pride dissolve, all
rigidness crumble, all disobedience submit. “He was subject to them.”
Who? In brief, he who created all things from nothing; he who, as Isaiah
says, “has cupped in his hand the waters of the sea and marked off the
heavens with a span; who has held in a measure the dust of the earth,
weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance”
(40,12)...This is he who, great and powerful though he be, was subject. And subject to whom? To a workman and a poor young maid ... So no longer hesitate to obey or be submissive ...
There
are people of wisdom within religious orders but it is by means of
simple men that God brought them there. God chose the foolish and weak,
the lowly and ignorant to bring together those who were wise, powerful
and of noble birth through them, "so that no human being might boast in
itself" (cf. 1 Cor. 1,26-29) but in him who came down, who came to
Nazareth, and who was subject.
Our obedience is a participation
in the very obedience of Jesus! The Father's Revelation in Person, made
His plans subject to "a workman and a poor young maid." So whenever one
of us submits ourselves to the decisions of our bishop or the
disciplines (traditions) of the Church as opposed to our own personal
"inspirations," it is Jesus' obedience that we are tapping into; and
that is life's very goal! We've heard time and again that the Church is
the Family of God. In truth, it is the Family of Nazareth thrown open to
the entire world. And those God places in leadership may not be the
smartest, or the most "charismatic," or the most plugged-in as to what
He wants to accomplish in the moment; but they are to be obeyed,
because doing so places us firmly in the One Who obeyed "a workman and a
poor young maid." May the Lord grant us a holy and profitable Feast of the Holy Family!
