Father Michael Renninger, Pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Richmond, Virginia, begins this Sunday’s sermon with a remarkable story about the non-miraculous healing of a girl who was blind from birth. Non-miraculous, we say, but is it really, when a talented surgeon is able to perform a corneal transplant? At the age of fifteen, after having lived her entire life in darkness, the doctor removed the bandages from Maria’s eyes and she was able to see. The first thing she saw was her own reflection, and the first thing she said was, “I’m so pretty!” Compare that with the story of the Man Born Blind from John 9:1-41, whose miraculous healing is greeted not with compliments, but with questions and accusations. In all the wrong ways this man’s adversaries tell him not how pretty he is, but how ugly. And then along comes Jesus…
Manuscript available: click HERE