This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
Today’s readings are all about Redemption.
The first reading doesn’t just talk about forgiveness from sins–it talks about the Redemption that comes with that forgiveness. The image of Lebanon becoming like an orchard, a rich forest. The image of the restoration of faculties: The blind see, the deaf here.
Redemption is more than just the removal of guilt. It is the restoration of faculties lost with sin: Joy, hope, discernment, wisdom, willpower, etc.
Redemption is not the elimination of an evil stain, but the restoration of things destroyed by sin.
Jesus symbolizes throughout His public life the restoration He performs with His saving act of the whole human person, through the powerful restoration of physical faculties lost as an indirect result of sin, such as the faculty of sight. We see an example of this in today’s Gospel.
The fact that Redemption is not just a cleansing, but a positive restoration, is an exciting thing for our spiritual life. Whereas cleansing is limited to the degree of the stain, restoration of our faculties–and the ability to enhance them through grace–is as limitless as God Himself is limitless. Redemption is the foundation of a life-long, even eternal process of approximation of what we are as humans to the infinite love, goodness, wisdom of God.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Think back to the freeing feeling you experienced after one of your confessions. Yes, a burden was lifted. But consider too that your faculty for experiencing joy was restored, along with a restored ability to make good judgements and act on them. Thank Jesus again for this inestimable restorative gift, and ask Him to build an edifice of true holiness upon it–if not for your own sake, then for the sake of those whom holy persons can help save.
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