Fr.Vladimir's Sermon Delivered on Sunday of the Blind Man, June 1st, 2008:

My beloved brothers and sisters, Christ is Risen! Recently I received an e-mail message that was entitled "Things I Really Don 't Understand." It had a list of questions for which there seems to be no clear answer. Here are a few of them:

Why is abbreviation such a long word?
What was the best thing before sliced bread?
How do they get the deer to cross the highway at those yellow signs?
How did a fool and his money get together in the first place?
Why do doctors and lawyers call what they do practice?
Why do we have eyes when we do not see?

With today's Gospel story, once again, we are reminded in the Church, through and by the Word of God, that there indeed is blindness in this world. While the story seems to speak about the physical blindness, what it really does is, it speaks about the eyes that see and the eyes that do not see. Jesus makes this statement clear in a few words saying to those who doubted their own blindness: "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains" (Jn. 9:41). My beloved brothers and sisters, will we say today: "Are we also blind? (Jn. 9:40) - just as the Pharisees did upon hearing Jesus' words: "For Judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind" (Jn. 9:39). Or, will we follow the example of the blind man who confessed Jesus as the Christ Lord saying: "Lord, I believe."

Do you have eyes, my beloved brothers and sisters? Yes. But, do you see? Do you see our Lord being sacrificed for us in this very place at this very hour, before our eyes? Do you see the Son of Man in your midst? The blind man in the story asked: And who is that Son of Man that I may believe in Him? Jesus answered: You have seen Him, and it is He who speaks to you." And so, who is that same Son of Man that we may believe in Him today, my beloved? It is One and the same Lord Jesus Christ: We have seen Him, heard Him and received His very Body and Blood. Don't we have eyes as our most faithful witnesses? Or, do we have eyes, and yet we do not see our Lord, just as the Pharisees did not see Him? What happened? Why is our Church in crisis? Why does our church suffer? Is it because we have eyes and see, or is it because we have eyes, yet we do not see? My beloved, there are some who believe that they do a noble thing punishing the Church by withholding their time, talents and treasure. What they do not see is that they are not able in the least way to harm the Church, but they will only earn the punishment invoking God's wreath upon them. For, how many times did I say that Christ has identified Himself with His Church? Thus, what you do to His Church, you also do to Him, our Lord and our God. Isn't that utter blindness when someone believes that will harm the One who has overcome death and who is the source of life? Indeed, they are not able to bring the slightest harm to the crucified and resurrected Lord, but they will bring harm to hundreds of souls and the Lord said: "woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!" (Mt. 18:7)

Yes, some will say, and we do not want to harm our Lord, but we simply disagree with those who are in charge of the parish life. We want to be heard as well and it seems that there is no other way to be heard.

My beloved, why do you think evil and why do you wish to harm your brothers? What is more important than your salvation? It is now that you may either earn or lose the Kingdom. It is yours to disagree, but why punish your brethren? What evil do you find in them? Think about it! Try to see what you have done! What is more precious to you then the Body of your Lord, that is, your brethren, and what more do you want then peace and harmony in this life? It is easy to criticize, but very hard to take the criticism and do good to your brethren, yet that is Christianity, my beloved. Stop criticizing and gossiping and help if you can! Do you want to be a Christian? Here is your opportunity. Help, when your help is needed! Do not close your eyes and ears when you hear that your church needs your help, when your church is drowning!

Remember also, your Lord has identified Himself with your brethren as well: Whatever you do to those little ones you do it to your Lord as well. It is clear that Christ has identified Himself with each one of our brethren. And what vindication will you find in God's eyes when you consciously neglect His Body. My beloved, I am not saying these things to reproach anyone. Far be it! But I am saying these because this is how I earn the Kingdom. The Lord sent His disciples to the world giving them only His Word to teach and preach. If the Lord was harsh, I am harsh too, but I will rejoice as long as I follow the Word of my Lord.

My beloved, the Church has nothing else but the Word of God as its foundation upon which it stands, and the Church cannot offer anything else except the Word of God which is that life giving Word, yet sometimes we are blind to see that. What more can we desire but the Word of God? What greater security do we have if not the Word of God? It is for this reason that the Lord has sent His disciples equipped only with the Word-preaching and teaching, and not by any other means. Indeed, there is no security to the Church, other then the Word of God. Who preserved the Church for over two thousand years, you think, if not God's Word? And what blindness befell those people who think that are powerful enough to manipulate the Church and those who serve in it? Woe to those, for they imitate that godless Pilate who, having Christ, his Lord and God, standing before Him, said: Don't you know that I have power to crucify you, or to release you? O, how can you say to your Creator I have power to release you? How can you manipulate your Lord and your God? Where are your eyes? Why do you say I see when you are in greater darkness than those who do not have eyes? Don't you see that by building God's Church- God's Kingdom on earth, you are actually building your home in God's Eternal Kingdom. Don't you see that there is nothing you will take with you after you die? Yes, you will say, but I will need my riches for my children. But even they will leave it all soon after you, sometimes even sooner than you; and their successors the same. Then what? And when that happens, you fall into despair because of your love for the earthly pleasures and possessions which your heirs did not get to retain, but there you do not need to worry about anything of this kind. The possession remains immovable, to you, to your children, and to their descendants, if they imitate the goodness.

And so, my beloved brothers and sisters, in Word and Sacrament, this same Jesus Christ comes to us again today to touch our eyes so that we might truly see - see him for who He is and for the purpose of his coming and, like the blind man, invite us to respond, "Lord, I believe". May we respond in that way not just in worship today but in and through our lives in order to be able to overcome all our different views and all our differences so that we may have one vision-God's Kingdom, one goal-Salvation, one head-Jesus Christ, just as the Apostles did.

Through the prayers of all the saints, o Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon us and save us. Amen.

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