The story of gradual healing in the Gospel for today is a reminder to us as well that faith is an ongoing process. It doesn’t end with just a prayer and life goes right back to the way it was, it involves the heart and the mind. The village of Bethsaida is one which Jesus condemns several times for being full of hard hearts and skeptics. The first thing that Jesus does is take the man by the hand and lead him out of the city. That’s important for us too. Our environment has a great deal to do with our spiritual growth. If the places we are “near occasions” of sin, then they will not be conducive to a Holy Life. It is only when we put our trust in God and follow His lead that we are able to truly grow in Holiness. Sin is too powerful on its own for a man to fight alone, it is why we need a Savior.
The story also reminds us that we are called to continual conversion. The disciples in Mark’s gospel take time to figure out exactly who Christ is. They get glimpses, learning more and more about Him. Our life with Christ should also be one of constant growth, not because God is changing but because we are growing into a deeper relationship. The man could see a little at first but later was healed completely. Its the same with us. The more time we spend with God in the places where He wants us to go, the more glimpses we get of who He truly is. God is so immense and so awesome (in the true sense of the word) that our minds will never fully grasp Him. That is why we can continue to get new and deeper understandings because there will always be room to grow in our faith.
What does this mean to us as Catholics? It means we need to trust in God to take us by the hand and lead us outside of the places that are not helping us to grow Spiritually. It means we also need to allow Jesus to touch us in the Sacraments to continually heal our spiritual eyes that we may see as He sees. And maybe the least popular part, we must listen closely to Jesus and the advice He gives us through the Church when He says to avoid this place, these situations, and these actions as they will not help you grow and may even hinder that growth. “Do not even go into the village.” Some places, some actions, and even some people may need to be cut off from your life in order for you to become who you were meant to be. That isn’t easy to do. It requires discernment, it requires courage, and it requires faith. We must let Jesus touch us in the Eucharist as often as we can, and let Him heal us in the sacrament of confession so he may give us the same spiritual healing that the man in today’s Gospel received. Then you too can “see everything distinctly.”