And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from his birth.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And as Jesus passed by, &c. Passing through the midst of His enemies and the crowd of the people. This signifies (though some deny it) that this cure took place immediately after Christ had withdrawn from the temple. As soon as He had escaped His enemies, He became visible again, and His disciples followed Him. "He mitigated their anger by His withdrawal, and softened their hardness by working a miracle" says S. Chrysostom.
He looked upon him tenderly and fixedly, as pitying him, and intending to restore his sight. And this intent look caused the disciples to inquire the cause of his blindness. "He Himself" (says S. Chrysostom) "saw that he was blind. The blind man did not come to Him, but He looked on him so stedfastly, that the disciples asked the question which follows." Mystically, sinners and unbelievers are blind, and are thus unable to see and seek for Christ. So that Christ must needs look on them first and enlighten them with the eyes of His grace.
His blindness was congenital and incurable. If it had been accidental, surgeons could have cured it. But when a man is cured who is blind from his birth, "it is not a matter of skill," says S. Ambrose, "but of power. The Lord gave him soundness, but not by the exercise of the medicinal art. The Lord healed those whom none could cure." His name is said to have been Cedonius or Celedonius (see ver38).
Mystically, this man is a type of mankind, blinded by original sin, which Jesus, "passing along the road of our mortality" (says the Gloss), "looked upon, pitied and enlightened." "For blindness befell the first man through sin, and as we spring from him, the human race is blind from its birth." And Bede, "The way of Christ is His descent from heaven to earth. But He beheld the blind Prayer of Manasseh , when He beheld mankind with pity." Again: "This blind man denotes the Gentiles born and brought up in the darkness of unbelief and idolatry, to whom Christ passed over, when expelled from the hearts of the Jews, and enlightened them with the light of faith and His Gospel," says Bede. And Christ wished to designate this in type by the enlightenment of this blind man. So S. Cyril, Rupert, and Bede.
