Open Your Spiritual Eyes (Sermon)

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By Bishop Benedict of Astoria

Created on Sunday, 14 December 2025 16:59

Bishop Benedict opens this homily by reflecting on human frailty and the deep spiritual meaning behind physical suffering.

He reminds us that “suffering is unnatural to human nature,” for “it is a consequence of the ancestral sin.” From the corruption of creation after Adam’s fall to our constant struggle for health and well-being, the Bishop connects our bodily pains to a higher spiritual thirst — the longing for restoration and divine sight.

“We know how much we take health for granted when we have it,” he says, “and how immediately all of our attention is being focused on regaining that health once we lack it.” This longing, he continues, exists in every living creature, revealing an inner drive toward wholeness — both physical and spiritual.

The Blind Man of Jericho: Faith that Sees

Drawing from today’s Gospel according to St. Luke, His Grace recounts the story of the blind Bartimaeus, who “begged by the wayside near Jericho” until the Lord restored his sight. “Sight,” the Bishop reflects, “is the doorway to one’s soul, to one’s heart.” But this healing, he emphasizes, unveils more than the restoration of physical vision — it reveals the blindness of the soul.

Quoting the Gospel of John, His Grace reminds us: “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Christ’s miracle is thus both a healing and a prophecy — that those humble enough to cry out to Him will receive not only their sight but salvation itself.

Spiritual Blindness and the Eyes of the Soul

“The Lord was to open the bodily eyes of this blind wretch only a few days before the spiritually blind in Jerusalem were to crucify Him.” Bishop Benedict shows how divine providence unfolds even “as though by chance,” in the words of St. Nikolai of Ohrid, yet “everything came about according to God’s plan.”

He contrasts physical blindness, which is temporary, with spiritual blindness, “which has eternal consequences.” “They that have eyes do not see,” the Bishop reminds us, “while they that have no eyes do see.” Christ’s reproach of the “blind guides, blind fools” becomes a warning for us all: to regain our inner sight through repentance and faith.

“Jesus, Son of David, Have Mercy on Me”

Like Bartimaeus, who “the more they tried to quiet him down, cried all the louder,” so too must every Christian cry out with persistence. “Had not that blind man cried out, he would not have found cure,” says St. Macarius the Great — a line Bishop Benedict highlights as the essence of ascetical life.

“We need to labor for our salvation therefore,” he exhorts. “Perseverance, or diligent persistence, is what attracts God’s attention upon us.” This spiritual cry finds its echo in the Jesus Prayer, which “is in essence no different than the cry of the blind man.”

Opened Eyes in the Breaking of Bread

The sermon reaches its conclusion with the moving image of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. “Their eyes were held that they should not know Him,” until “He took bread and blessed it and broke and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened.”

“They communed,” says the Bishop, “and in communing with the Lord is how their eyes were opened. One that joins himself to Light becomes light himself.”

May we, like Bartimaeus and the disciples, learn to cry out, to seek, and to see — that through holy perseverance and communion with Christ, “our eyes may be opened and we may glorify Him, now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.”