Christ worked many miracles and yet many of those who heard and saw these great works remained both death and blind to what they were shown and told. Likewise, the prophets had the foresight to proclaim a message of repentance. These messages which they proclaimed often came to be unheeded by those who heard their voice. We also find a loving God who is constantly entering into covenant with His chosen people and yet they continue to turn away from Him and the path that He has opened wide to them.
God’s covenant with His chosen people has led the way to the coming of Christ. The voices of the prophets further point the way towards the coming of the Messiah. As is stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in whom he has established his covenant forever. The Son is his Father’s definitive Word; so there will be no further Revelation after him.” Despite all of this our current age continues to do what was done before and thus some remain death and blind to the divine truths of faith.
It was at our baptism that we were greeted by the priest at the doors of the church. It was here that we came to be received into the life of the church through our baptism. Through these life giving waters Christ said to us as He said to the man born death and dumb, “ephpheta” “be opened.” Despite this life giving exchange in the waters of baptism we so often allow ourself to return to a life which we knew before when we were both death and blind.
If we remain thrust down in this state we fail to hear the voice of the Lord and to see His great works. If we remain cast down we fail to see the importance of the Church and to allow it to guide us towards a life which is filled with the pursuit of holiness and God’s grace. In this parable that further unfolds we notice that the man who was left upon the road half dead was brought to the innkeeper and was left in the comfort of the inn. Thus too we who ought to strive for holiness and God in the midst of the constant changes of this life have been left with the Church. The Church which takes care of us, the Church through which we receive the sacraments, and the Church which guides us towards salvation. As was stated by Saint Cyprian, “there is no salvation outside of the church.”
As Lumen Gentium expounds upon this quote of Saint Cyprian: “Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.”
Therefore, my sisters and brothers in Christ let us not be led astray by the ways of the world and the doubt that Satan desires to bring into our life through division. We must stay within the confines of the Church and continue to infuse ourselves with God’s grace. Through such an exchange our eyes and ears will continue to see and hear the truths which are discovered in the Church and are revealed to us by Christ Jesus.
