We are in the world and the world is in us. Today's mass readings demonstrate that, whether it's the receding of the floodwaters (Gen. 8:6-22) or the gradual healing of a blind man (Mk. 8:22-26), Spirit renews in stages.
By raven and by dove, God gradually restores the face of the earth to its original watery state on the first day of creation, when dry ground appeared: “So it came about that, on the first day of the first month of his six hundred and first year, the water had dried up on the earth, and when Noah removed the hatch and looked out, he saw that the ground was dry.” (Gen. 8:13 REB)
Pairing this story with the stepwise healing of the blind man in Mark suggests that what Spirit works in the world it also works in the human being, one step at a time.
The healing story encapsulates Christian initiation. Touched by Christ, first we begin to see the world more clearly: ‘I see people — they look like trees, but they are walking about.’ (Mk. 8:24 REB)
Then in fullness and truth: “…he looked hard, and now he was cured and could see everything clearly.” (Mk. 8:25 REB)
Christ works one work, both in the world around us and in the world within. The new person is the world restored. A natural world in balance is human nature restored in the original image of Christ. And the Spirit says of both:
‘As long as the earth lasts,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
they will never cease.’
– Gen. 8:22 (REB)
Scripture quotations taken from the Revised English Bible, copyright © Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press 1989. All rights reserved.
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