May 17, 2012                                        Des O’Donnell             desomi@eircom.net            Previous articles by Des

              Desmond O’Donnell is an Oblate priest and a registered psychologist in Dublin        

                                    THE  BLIND  MAN                                                                            

Client:             Please excuse my slowness in getting around but I’m only getting used to my new-found eyesight.

Counsellor:     Can you explain ?

Client: Well. you see I was born blind. My loving parents must have been devastated when they discovered it.   In a sense I never discovered it; I grew up with it – darkness.

Counsellor: Oh, I see, sorry, but do tell me more.

Client: Being able to see now I and am still trying to learn new habits and unlearn those of a life-time. It’s like being in a new place, learning new customs and a new language.  From darkness into light.

Counsellor:     I never quite thought of it that way.

Client: That’s OK. So long as you understand. But I have bigger things I want to talk over with you.

Counsellor:       Yes, do feel free to speak about anything you like.

Client: Yes.  I have one sort of negative problem and the other one might be called positive. I’ll tell you about the negative one first. I’ve been expelled from the synagogue and my parents are threatened so much by the Pharisees, that they will not fully support me now.  They won’t talk up for me.

Counsellor:     And the synagogue is important to you ?

Client:  Yes, now more than ever.  As you probably know we Jews put great stress on purity when we worship and somehow even physical handicaps are considered an impurity.  In that way I am a sinner in the eyes of our law-abiding Pharisees. My blindness is blamed on my own or my parents’ sins. So I was never very welcome in the synagogue but especially in the temple.  So you can imagine my joy now that my sight has been restored and I hoped to worship with everyone else.

Counsellor: And you are not permitted ?

Client:  That’s right. And the Pharisees quizzed me so much that I could not resist asking them if they were going to follow the man who gave me back my sight. They said that he too is a sinner because he healed me on the Sabbath.

Counsellor:  Healed you ?

Client: Yes, Jesus the wandering Rabbi. I did not know he was around; I had just heard different opinions about him. He does not do much of his preaching in the temple or in synagogues; its mostly on the street or by the lovely lake of Galilee which I am enjoying for the first time.. The religious leaders said he was a bad man but many ordinary people kept following him and listening. His close followers saw me and asked him if I or my parents had sinned. I heard him saying that neither of us had.  That brought joy to my heart.  But then he mixed dust mixed with his spittle on my eyes and told me to wash in the pool at Siloam.  One of my friends brought me even though he kept saying that it would not work. But now I see.  Yes, I see. He said that he was the light of the world and I don’t understand that but he certainly gave me light.

Counsellor:  So you are very happy ?

Client:  Not entirely. In some way I am more on the margin than ever.  Imagine not being able to go to the synagogue and having everyone pointing and then staring at me saying ‘He’s the blind man who used to beg’.  Others just can believe it and say that I just look like the blind man.  If you pardon the joke, they just cannot believe their eyes.

Counsellor: Yes, that’s a bit hard to take. 

Client:  Yes, some people dragged me along to a group of Pharisees and when in answer to their question, I told them just what happened, they said ‘This man is not from God for he does not observe the Sabbath’.   I disagreed with them publicly and I said ‘He is a prophet’.

Counsellor:     So, you just said what you thought.

Client:    But that did not satisfy them. They came back to me asking me to give glory to God by saying that the Rabbi was a sinner. My answer annoyed them even more – ‘I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind now I see’. Simple as I could make it.  I think that religion sometimes blinds people if something does not fit their system Yes, not that I think about it I am more at my ease.

Counsellor:  And your parents ?

Client:   They are quiet people and were afraid of the leaders. They just said that I was in fact their son and old enough to speak for myself. I was sorry for them that they did not have the courage to say what I said – ‘Here is an astonishing thing ! You do not know where he come from ,and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners’.

Counsellor: You are a religious man and you certainly do not lack courage.

Client: Maybe, in a way.  In my heart I do know God.  Being blind and begging gives one plenty of time to reflect and to pray.  Maybe it was my faith or God inside me that told me to go back to the Rabbi and I was looking for him.   But he was looking for me and found me.  Maybe the same thing inside both of us made us want to meet again. I don’t know.

Counsellor:  After all you had been through since he healed you. you must have been very happy to meet him again.  Do you want to tell me about it ?

Client:  Yes, that is the main reason why I came to see you. He asked me straight out if I believed in the Son of Man.  In our sacred books none of which I have read of course, there is some mention of this mysterious character. He is someone very close to God or maybe he is the Messiah. So, of course I do believe and I said so…. (long pause)…. Then I worshipped him.

Counsellor:  And you are now still happier ?

Client:  Yes, yes.  My life has changed, and synagogue or no synagogue, I will certainly go to hear than man again.  He gave me light in more ways than one.

Counsellor:  Light ?

Client:  Yes, light. I suppose another word might be meaning in my life. As I talked with you the light became even brighter, clearer. Thanks for listening to me. Pardon the joke, but I’ll see myself out.