Sunday of the Blindman

from Joanna's notepad

.Two things I want to talk about, and I have nobody to talk with.  As usual, I did Sunday Typica by myself.

 Gospel St. John 9:1-38

1.  I remember that this blindman had no eyeballs.  It wasn't like he was born with eyes that were useless.  He was born with eyeballs missing.  Empty sockets.  Our Lord Jesus literally created eyeballs for the man using dirt (earth) and his spit to moisten it to make a clay.   He rolled the clay into 2 balls, I imagine about the size of chestnuts, and pressed the clay into the man's empty eye sockets.  For the second time he uses water in this miracle, the first time His own spit, and the 2nd time the Sheep's pool, which is where the Jews would wash the animal to be sacrificed before it was killed according to procedure. 

Interesting is that before the Gospel reading we read a beatitude verse (from the Tone 5 Octoechos and Pentecostarion): ...Thou wast crucified between two thieves, one of them blasphemed Thee and was justly damned... 

And now in the Gospel reading we have the Pharisees doing the same blasphemy as the bad thief, denying that Christ is God.  

Right away I remember St. Philaret's sermon, "On Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit":
https://startingontheroyalpath.blogspot.com/2026/01/blasphemy-against-holy-spirit.html

First the Pharisees try to deny the miracle itself.   But the miracle is undeniable.   They also can't deny that this type of miracle could only be done by God.  They say that Christ can't be God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.  So the best they can do is to get the blindman to say it was God Who healed him, and not Christ.   But the blindman humbly and truthfully explains without giving them the attestation they demand.  So then they change the subject and attack the blindman for his daring insubordination, daring to contradict teachers who are superior to him.

St. Philaret's definition of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

  — a conscious opposition to the truth that is obvious to a person's conscience, when a person goes against the truth and against the voice of his own conscience.  This is the grave sin the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of, that it will not be forgiven in this present age, or in the coming age.

A conscious opposition is when somebody denies Christ is God while in their heart knowing He is God.  Not just somebody who is mistaken, misinformed or skeptical/cautious — St. Paul is an example of this latter.  We don't get tricked into committing blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.  When it happens it is deliberate.  Why was St. Paul not convicted of blasphemy?  The difference is that St. Paul loved truth more than he loved himself.  When he saw he was wrong, he submitted to the truth, immediately, "Who art thou, Lord?"  

2.  Backing up in the Gospel reading to where the Pharisees said that Christ is not of God because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.  This is using "Keeping the Sabbath" as a sign of who to trust.  The Pharisees deliberately were abusing the law.   But the people trusted they were being directed to use this as a sign of how to recognize a man of God.  If only such recognition were so easy...  Satan uses this "sign-trick" over and over. 

    A.  I see the sign trick used to confuse people about canonical/uncanonical jurisdictions.with the calendar and the canons.   One of the signs of a true Church is that it uses the Church calendar and follows the canons.  But that is not always the case.  Some of world Orthodoxy still uses the Church calendar (OCA in Alaska), and all of the R-fragments use the Church calendar (ROCiE, ROAC, RTOC, ROCANA).  

    B.  The other day I read in a 1970 interview with the then Metr. Philaret where he was asked what circumstances prevent cooperation between ROCOR and MP.*  St. Philaret answers that MP is controlled by the government.  That is the first thing he says in giving his answer.  Then later he expounds a little saying:

" ... the main sign of MP's captivity is that it does not glorify the New Martyrs; instead it mocks their memory claiming there has been no persecution of the Church in USSR. "

  Fast-forward to 1992 and MP realizes that it has to make show of canonizing some of the new martyrs to get ROCOR to submit to its control.   MP canonizing the New Martyrs was used as "proof" for the supposed rightness of the ROCOR-MP union.  This was an abuse of that sign, and look how many fell for it!  And now MP is still mocking the Holy New Martyrs by grouping them with abominables: Stalin, Lenin, and Sergius.

 

 Satan is so sickening; and when he makes us sick it delights him.  Satan delights in the people he fools with his tricks; and Satan delights in the people who see through his tricks are get disgusted.   I daresay he delights more in the people who are aware of his tricks, but can do nothing about them; and who are forced by circumstances to either participate in the tricks, or to keep silence; or else if they try to speak out, they are considered a mental case of some kind or a criminal of some kind.

. . . in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

* In Their Own Words, Private Letters, provided by Orthodox Traditionalist Publications ISBN: 979-829-448-2275