When Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling was completed, it was considered a masterpiece. The distinction continues to endure.
It is why many people consider him the greatest artist of all time.
“When the chapel was uncovered for viewing, people all over rushed to see it. The sight of it alone left them amazed and speechless,” said Giorgio Vassari, himself a famous Italian artist, architect and sculptor of the time.
“The best way to look at Michelangelo’s work is to look at it in one frame. You go up to the sanctuary and then look back at the ceiling as one frame,” a co-visitor from America told me while we were in line waiting to enter the chapel.
“Wow! So beautiful!” I said to myself. The fellow visitor’s advice worked. It was as if I saw heaven.
When I was writing this chapter, my mind went back to my first visit to Italy, where I saw the Sistine Chapel paintings and other beautiful works of art, including the original of “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, which hung on the wall of a refectory in an old Franciscan monastery in Milan.
In life there many things we take for granted – for example, our ability to see. We know it is there and we do not think about it.
Can you imagine how different your life would be if you could not see?
“Had I been born blind, I would not have the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful work of art,” I thought.
You would not know what you look like. You would not be able to see your face in the mirror, or your mom or dad’s face.
You could not see the beauty of nature – the flowers, the ocean, the mountains, sunsets and sunrises. You could not see the stars in the heavens.
You would not be able to have the full experience of movies or television shows, though you could hear the dialogue. You could not send or receive text messages. You could never read a book or drive a car.
That was the life of the blind person in John’s Gospel that Jesus healed (John 9:1-12).
The man was blind from birth. His life was completely changed when he encountered Jesus, who healed his blindness.
We do not know how old the man was when he encountered Jesus. But we know that his life was never the same.
In a sense, we too are blind people.
We too are blind if we do not believe that we belong to God; if we do not know what it means to be a disciple of Jesus; if we cannot see Jesus in our brothers and sisters in need; if we fail to love the people we do not like; if we fail to love the people whose skin color is not like our own; if we fail to love those who do not speak our language.
We too are blind if we cannot see that sex is not merely for pleasure, but a total gift of oneself to one’s spouse in a married relationship; if do not see that marriage is a relationship that can be dissolved only by death.
We too are blind if we overvalue things that are not important and undervalue things that have ultimate significance.
We too are blind if we fail to recognize the inviolable dignity of every human person – from the moment of conception till death.
We too are blind if we fail to see that faith is not something private, but is given to us to be shared with others; if we fail to see that faith means to lean on Jesus so much that if Jesus were not there, we would fall down.
But the most serious and the most debilitating blindness is failure to see that God loves us, despite hearing that “God is love” or “Jesus loves you.”
I am not really sure how many of us truly believe that God loves us with an infinite love.
When we think of the bad things we have done, we find it difficult to believe that God could ever love us.
It is easier to see that God loves us when we are good, or when we are healthy or when the future looks bright.
When difficulties and challenges hit us, we are not sure if God loves us.
The blind man in the Gospel is us. Jesus wants to open our eyes so we can see the incredible love of the Father for us. Jesus wants us to see that He entered our world because He loves us.
If you doubt that God loves you, look at Jesus hanging on the cross.
When our eyes are open and we can see how much God loves us, everything in our life is different, like the life of the blind man in the Gospel.
How can we be healed from our blindness? How can we begin to see?
Well, how did the blind man in the Gospel begin to see?
He encountered Jesus. So must we – again and again in the Holy Eucharist.