Sherlock Holmes went for a camping trip with dr Watson. After a good meal they lay down for the night and went sleep. Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend. ” Watson, look up and tell me what you see.” Watson replied, “I see millions and millions of stars”. Sherlock Holmes then said, ” well Watson, what does it tell you?” Watson pondered for a minute and the replied, ” astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Theologically, I can deduce that God is all- powerful and that we are very small. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Why, what does it tell you?” Sherlock Holmes depended,” Watson my friend, someone has stolen our tent”! Watson had missed the most obvious

I want to talk today about very fragile and delicate topic, one of many topics we could discuss after today’s gospel: Spiritual blindness

Of course, as we follow the Pharisees, we will say “It’s not my problem”… or,
“Surely we are not also blind, are we?”

Spiritual blindness or short sightedness happens when we look at our life and we choose not to see the things that are wrong there.

Why don’t we see them?
Because we choose not to see them, not to acknowledge them, not to be bothered by them.

The Pharisees, seeing the mighty deeds of Jesus and hearing His words of truth, simply choose not to choose Him.

They close their eyes, hearts and minds to His teaching, His truth and His person.

They choose to be blind, thinking all the time that they are the ones who are right.

What about us?
What about my spiritual blindness, and what about yours?
What are the things, the truths we reject and refuse to see or even acknowledge?

What about yoga, contraception, cheating, stealing, lying, bribing?
Which of those is part of your spiritual blindness?
Which of them do you refuse to see as wrong and which have you accepted as part of your life?

The problem for today’s world, which I would call the post-Christian world, is that there is no objective truth. As a result, everything is relevant and subject only to my opinion of whether it is right or wrong for a Christian.

Today’s story is not only about the blind men who receives sight, but also about those who can see, but in reality are really blind.

Jesus gave them one more chance, which many of them rejected.

What about us? What about you and what about me?

We need to call what is wrong, wrong by name, accept the truth and reject the lies we believe as excuses for our wrong deeds.

In doing so, may the Blood of Christ, which we will drink today, be our strength and our life.