This weekend we finish our post-Pentecost sequence of readings. Next week we actually begin the five week sequence of pre-Lent commemorations and readings that deliver a clear message. The   message of these pre-Lent weeks pertain to the meaning of metanoia, that   process we are encouraged to engage in more intensely during the Great Fast. Metanoia deals with the process of changing our hearts and minds and opening them to God’s Spirit.

(It should be noted that frequently the word metanoia is translated in English as repentance. The English verb t0 repent or repentance does not fully connote the meaning of metanoia).

It is fortuitous, I believe, that this pre-Lent sequence is preceded by today’s readings. When you attempt to integrate the message conveyed by the Epistle and the Gospel and spiritually interpret the messages they convey, you see that they prepare us for the work of the five weeks before the Great Fast.

I believe that today’s readings exhort us to ask God to cure us of any spiritual blindness (the message of the Gospel) we might have so that we can truly believe this: God came into our world in the    Person of Jesus to save us, that is to show us how to live in order that we might experience the fullness of life and discern the true meaning and purpose of our earthly existence (the message of the Epistle). Hopefully we might join with the blind man and sincerely say with him: Lord, I want to see!

Paul, in his first letter to Timothy, which we use as our Epistle reading, writes: “You can depend on this as worthy of full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”. (We are all, by the way, sinners not because we do dumb things and are weak but because our knowledge is still incomplete and we don’t totally understand the meaning and purpose of life).

As sinners, we tend to have certain spiritual blind spots. We don’t yet see the world as God sees it – as He intended it and us to be when He created us. Our human condition, which consists of not completely and truly knowing the meaning and purpose of life, is what makes us sinners. Life is given to us in order to help us learn why we have been called to this earthly existence.

The one wonderful thing is that our Creator-God understands this and has and is giving us all the various possible opportunities for spiritual grow.

Accept whole-heartedly the fact that God loves you and cares about you.