Christ is risen!

Today is the sixth Sunday of the Holy Paschal festive period. This Sunday is also called “The Sunday of the Blind man”, as we read the Gospel of one of the most wonderous deeds of the Lord, that happened at the pool of Siloam – where He “opened the eyes” of the one who never had vision, even from the birth.

And we are amazed by this miracle, that very much reminded the first creation of the first man: “He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva”. The Most Pure One recreated the one at the pool, by the same power He once created water, and the earth, and then Adam and Eve.

And there, at the pool, we are astounded by the blindness of those who had vision (eyesight) from the beginning, of the Pharisees, and by the week and yielding blindness of the parents of that man…

But, if we address the event in the light of the Holy Pascha, we are likely to have the other words of this Gospel highlighted today. When the disciples asked (as they quite justly reasoned about the cause and the outcome, the sin and its consequences) “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” — Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him…” Again: no one sinned!

This was when the first man was created – in the beginning, and this is what is said in the Revelation (in Chapter 21) – in the end: “I am making everything new!”

So, the Lord created man new, the man does not have sins – at the first creation, and today — due to the Resurrection – at the second and last creation!

We are again at the moment of being sinless: “no one sinned”! Isn’t it extremely pleasant and joyous!

So this man is everyone who accepted the Lord’s Resurrection. And at this point he (due to the original sin that still lives in us) is put sort of in place of the old Adam, in the place where this his sinlessness is tempted.

But instead of the old serpent there, we see the Pharisees, and instead of  “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” today we hear “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath. …How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?”

And this is our sinful nature, that is tempting us, trying to steal from us this our second chance, with Pharisees representing its most unconscionable yet clever part, and the parents – the part of us that is ready to shrink and yield, and also some initial evasiveness of the man (“I do not know if this man is a sinner…”)…

But this man from the pool of Siloam, in the end, when he was put a straightforward question, represents how we should stand firmly for our second creation, just as he did for his: “This is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

This is what we should do to fend off/resist the temptations – not to lose this precious gift of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, which is our New Creation and New Life. Amen!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!