Opening the eyes of the spiritually blind – Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
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Two conditions are described in today’s Gospel reading. The first condition is when the blind men cry out to the God-Man Jesus Christ: “Have mercy on us, Jesus, Son of David!” (Matthew 9:27). This condition indicates the first stage of spiritual development – the purification of the heart from the passions.
You know that characteristics of this stage of the spiritual development are the oral-mind prayer and the purification of the energy of the mind, that is, the first seeing of the uncreated light, but also the still present closure of the heart for the prayer and the enlightenment of the mind, i.e. spiritual blindness.
In the blind men, we notice not only the persistence in the oral prayer, but also the awareness that they are blind and that they need to liberate themselves of that blindness. The blind men believe that Christ can heal them.
The awareness of our sinfulness and the awareness that only God can heal us are the basic foundations of the Orthodox spiritual life.
The same applies to all of us. We need to know that we are spiritually blind (we do not have the prayer of the mind in the heart and an enlightened mind), we need to believe that Christ can heal us, and we need to prove our faith by calling Jesus’ name in repentance more often, without allowing someone or something to obstruct us. So, in repentance, not to teach and condemn …
When we gradually, through the prayerful struggle, begin to purify the energy of the mind, it will enable us to see where we are at, to see that we are spiritually blind, that we have fallen in relation to the Christ’s ideal, and even more strongly to call upon Him.
But if we use the knowledge that remains from the first purification of the energy of the mind to see and judge other people’s sinfulness and blindness, then we choose the wrong way, which takes us far back.
Why do I repeat this many times? Because all of us make a mistake right at this point.
Without the gift of the prayer of the mind in the heart and enlightenment of the mind, we are just ordinary blind people. God forbid if we become blind leaders of blind people, such blindness a man cannot cure.
The second condition that can be singled out in today’s gospel reading is when Christ made the blind men see. “And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to Him, “Yes, Lord!” (Matthew 9:28). Only inside the Church (in the house), in Its Holy Eucharist, can we truly confess and approach the God-Man Christ, and then receive healing from Him. This condition indicates second stage of the spiritual growth, which is the enlightenment of the mind.
Enlightenment, on one hand, presupposes a sufficiently purified essence of the heart from the passions, and on the other, it is a gift of God. The purity of the heart enables the manifestation of the grace of Baptism in it, as well as the descent of the mind to the place from which the grace manifests itself. Because, now, the mind already knows “the place of the heart,” it abandons oral prayer and continues to pray inside the heart. In there, united in prayer with God’s grace, the mind becomes enlightened.
It is good to know this also: Those who are on the level of enlightenment also feel like they are blind in comparison to those who with their transfigured bodily eyes see the uncreated divine light of the knowledge of God. They feel their blindness even more than those ones who are truly spiritually blind, those who are on the level of the purification of the heart from the passions. (If they feel their blindness at all …) That is why Saint Gregory Palamas in that period of his spiritual development prayed: “Lord, enlighten my darkness!”
Most Holy Theotokos, enlighten our darkness and save us!
Metropolitan of Strumica Nahum
(07.08.2021 15:56)
Photo: Fr. Gavril Galev
