08.03.07
Siloam
“As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. ‘Go,’ he told him, ‘wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing” John 9:1-6
A few months back I had been reflecting on the above passage in John and considering why it was that Jesus healed the blind man with clay and washing in water. Surely Christ could have simply spoken or touched the man with his hands or any number of methods simpler and less mysterious. But, it seems Christ was conveying some message through the use of these materials.
After meditating on this for a little while, what I took to be the meaning of Christ’s actions I was hoping to find supported in the Fathers. Oddly enough, awhile back, the same week the above passage from John 9 appeared in the lectionary, I ran into the below passage from St. Irenaeus when nearing the end of his masterful work “Against the Heresies” (or, the title I am quite fond of which St. Irenaeus uses to refer to his work: “The Refutation and Overthrowal of Knowledge Falsely So-Called”). I was pleased to see that what I had seen in John’s gospel was also seen by this great Father. Of course, having found a good treatment of the passage there is little need for me to offer my own exegesis; I will simply post his the superior commentary below.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 5, Chap. XV:
“And therefore, when His disciples asked Him for what cause the man had been born blind, whether for his own or his parents’ fault, He replied, ‘Neiter hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.’ Now the work of God is the fashioning of man. For, as the Scripture says, He made [man] by a kind of process: ‘And the Lord took clay from the earth,and formed man.’ Wherefore also the Lord spat on the ground and made clay, and smeared it upon the eyes, pointing out the original fashioining [of man], how it was effected, and manifesting the hand of God to those who can understand by what [hand] man was formed out of the dust. For that which the artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, [viz., the blind man's eyes], He then supplied in public, that the works of God might be manifested in him, in order that we might not be seeking out another hand by which man was fashioned, nor another Father; knowing that this hand of God which formed us at the beginning, and which does form us in the womb, has in the last times sought us out who were lost, winning back His own, and taking up the lost sheep upon His shoulders, and with joy restoring it to the fold of life . . . . For the Lord who formed the visual powers is He who made the whole man, carrying out the will of the Father. And inasmuch as man, with respect to that formation which was after Adam, having fallen into transgreession, needed the laver of regeration (that is, baptism), [the Lord] said to him [upon whom He had conferred sight], after He had smeared his eyes with the clay, ‘Go to Siloam, and wash;’ thus restoring to him both [his perfect] confirmation, and that regeneration which takes place by means of the laver. And for this reason when washed he came seeing, that he might both know Him who had fashioned him, and that man might learn [to know] Him who has conferred upon him life.”
08.01.07
The Body of Christ and Gender Issues
Jesus was fully male. Most importantly, for our discussion here, Jesus had and has a male body. Since His ascension (and even before) He has given us His very Body, of which we have the privilege to become a part of. Yet His Body, the Church, is everywhere referred to in feminine terms as She, Her, Mother, Bride, etc. How is it that we can talk of the Body of Christ both as male and female?
Let us recall God’s creating Eve from the rib of Adam. Eve was taken from Adam’s side; her body was literally Adam’s body; Adam could look upon Eve and truly say that she is “flesh of my flesh.” Despite this commonness of body, there was, nevertheless, male Adam and female Eve. (In fact, what bodily differences did exist, existed to allow for the becoming of one flesh, so they could actually be more unified and of one body than if they did not possess those differences). So it is with the new Adam, Christ. The old Adam’s flesh was male, and the new Adam’s flesh is male. The old Adam’s bride was truly flesh of his flesh, and the new Adam’s bride is truly flesh of his flesh. The old Adam’s bride was truly female, and the new Adam’s bride is truly female.
St. Paul touches on these issues in the famous passage of Ephesians 5:25-32:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Here we see that the mystery of the unity between Christ and His church is bound up in the unity between husband and wife. Each pair becomes and is one flesh, and to love the other is to love one’s own body precisely because the other is one’s own body and self. Yet these unions are without confusion between bride and bridegroom. While husband and wife become truly one flesh, we never forget who is the husband and who is the wife. So it is with Christ and the church that while we are one body we do not forget that Christ is the bridegroom and we are the bride.
Of course much more could be said of the passage from Ephesians and of the imagery being discussed, but I’ll leave that for you to meditate on and, hopefully, for us all to experience.
