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John 9:1. And as he passed, he saw a man blind from birth. The Lord leaves the church in order to somehow tame the anger of the Jews. He begins to heal the blind man in order to soften with this sign their hardness of heart and stubbornness, although they did not take advantage of this, and at the same time show them that He did not say in vain and out of self-praise: “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). It was decent for Himself to approach the blind man, and not this one to Him. John 9:2. His disciples asked Him: Rabbi! Who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind? The disciples, noticing His attention to the blind man, asked: “Who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind?” This question seems strange. For how could he sin before he was born? The apostles probably did not share the pagan superstition that the soul, before being united with the body, lives in another world and for sin, as if in punishment, descends into the body. Being fishermen, they could not hear anything like this, for such thoughts belonged to the sages. So the question seems unreasonable, but not to the attentive. Because know. The apostles heard Christ say to the paralytic: “Behold, you are healed; Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14). Now they see the blind man and are perplexed, and they seem to say: “Suppose he was paralyzed for his sins, but what do you say about this? Has he sinned? But this cannot be said; because he is blind from birth. Or his parents? This cannot be said either, because a son is not punished for his father.” So, in the present case, the apostles are not so much asking as they are perplexed. John 9:3. Jesus answered: Neither he nor his parents sinned, The Lord, to resolve their bewilderment, says: “Neither he sinned (for as if he had sinned before birth), nor his parents.” However, He says this without freeing them from their sins. For he not only said that his parents had not sinned, but added that “he was born blind.” Although his parents sinned, that’s not why this misery happened to him. It is unfair to place the sins of fathers on children who are not guilty of anything. God also inspires this through Ezekiel: may you no longer have this saying: “The fathers ate sour grapes, but the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Ezek. 18:1,2). And through Moses he decreed by law: “Let not the fathers die for the sons” (Deut. 24:16). “But how,” you say, “is it written: “Bring on the sins of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation” (Ex. 34:7)?” To this we can say, firstly, that this is not a universal verdict, spoken not about everyone, but only about those who came out of Egypt. Then look at the meaning of the sentence. It does not say that children are punished for sins committed by the fathers, but that the punishments for the sin of the fathers are passed on to the children when the children commit the same sins. So that those who came out of Egypt would not think that they would not be punished in the same way as their fathers, even if they had sinned worse than them, he says to them: “No, not so. The sins of the fathers, that is, the punishments, will be passed on to you, because you did not become better, but committed the same sins, and even worse.” If we see that children often die as punishment for their parents, then we know that God takes them from this life out of love for mankind, so that in life they would not become worse than their parents and would not live to harm their souls or even many others. But the abyss of God’s destinies hid these cases within itself. And we will move on. but this is so that the works of God may appear on him. Here again is another difficulty. Another will ask: “How did He say this? For this would mean that man, deprived of light, was offended so that the works of God might be revealed in him? Couldn’t they have appeared differently?” What kind of offense, tell me, man, does he suffer? “The one,” you say, “is deprived of light.” And what harm comes from being deprived of sensory light? On the contrary, he is more favored. For along with his physical sight, he also received his sight with the eyes of his soul. Blindness served him well, since through healing from it he came to know the true Sun of Truth. So, this blind man is not offended, but favored. Then, anyone who studies the word of God should know that the particles “in order to” are often used in Scripture to denote not the cause, but the event itself. For example, David says: “So (as yes) You are righteous in Your judgment” (Ps. 50:6). David did not sin so that God would be justified. But as a result of David’s sin, God was able to be justified. For when God endowed David with so many gifts of which he was not worthy, and he transgressed the commandment of God, committed murder and adultery, and used royal power to insult God, then what consequence followed from this if not that God, judging and convicting David, was justified and appeared as the winner of the condemned king, because he transgressed the law of Him from whom he received the kingdom, he violated the very fact that he was king? Being an honest man, he could not have committed two such great crimes so easily. So, you see, in the sentence “so you are righteous” (Slavic “as if you were justified”) the particle does not mean the cause, but the effect. You will find many such turns of phrase in the Apostle. For example, in the letter to the Romans: “What can be known about God is obvious to the pagans, so that they are unanswerable” (Slavic “if they are unanswerable”) (Rom. 1:19–20). God gave the pagans knowledge not so that when they sinned they would be unrequited, but so that they would not sin. And as they sinned, as a result of this knowledge made them unrequited. And again: “The law came after,” “let sin increase” (Rom. 5:20). Although the law was given not so that sin would increase, but so that it would decrease, but since those who accepted the law did not want to reduce sin, the law served them to increase sin. For their sin became more important and more serious because they had the law, and yet they sinned. So here, the expression “in order for the works of God to appear” indicates not the cause, but the effect. For by healing the blind man God was glorified. Often a builder of a house will do one thing and leave another unfinished so that someone who does not believe that he has completed the first part can prove through the construction of the unfinished part that he is the artist of what was built before. Likewise, our God Jesus, healing damaged members and bringing them to a natural (normal) state, shows that the Creator of the other members is He. “So that the glory of God may appear,” he says this about Himself, and not about the Father. For the glory of the Father was manifest, but it was necessary to reveal the glory of Jesus and the fact that He who created man in the beginning is He. And there is, without a doubt, a lot of glory when it is revealed that He who now appeared as Man, in the beginning as God created man. Listen further to what He says about Himself. John 9:4. I must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night comes when no one can do anything. He adds: “I must do the works of Him who sent Me.” “I,” he says, “must reveal Myself and do things that can show that I do the same thing that the Father does.” Look, he didn’t say that I should do the same things that the Father does, but the very same things that the Father does. “I,” he says, “must do the very works that He who sent Me does.” I must do them “while there is day”, while real life lasts, and people can believe in Me. Then “the night will come when no one can work,” that is, believe, for he calls faith work. So, in the next age no one can believe. Real life is a day, because during it we can do as during the day; although the Apostle Paul calls it night, partly because those who commit virtue or vice are unknown here, and partly in comparison with the Light that will illuminate the righteous. The age to come is night, because no one can do anything there; although the Apostle Paul calls it day, because the righteous will appear in the light and the deeds of everyone will be revealed. So, in the next age there is no faith, but everyone will obey, willing and unwilling. John 9:5. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” for I enlighten souls by teaching and showing miracles. Therefore, now I must enlighten the souls of many through healing the blind and enlightening the pupils in his eyes. Like light, I must enlighten both sensually and spiritually. John 9:6. Having said this, He spat on the ground, made clay from the spit, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, Having said this, Jesus did not stop at the words, but added action to them. “He spat on the ground, made clay from the spitting, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay,” showing through the clay that He also formed Adam’s body from clay. The very words that Adam I created could seem tempting to the listeners, but when the words were confirmed by deeds, there was no longer any reason for temptation. He makes eyes out of clay, using the same method of creativity that he created Adam. He not only arranged the eyes and opened them, but gave them sight, and this showed that He also breathed a soul into Adam. For without the action of the soul the eye would never have seen, even if it were constructed. He also used spitting to give him sight. Since He intended to send the blind man to Siloam, so that they would not attribute the miracle to the water of the spring, but would know that the power that came out of His mouth formed the eyes of the blind man and opened them, for this he spat on the ground and made clay from the spit of his lips. Then, so that you don’t think that the miracle depended on the earth, he commands you to wash so that the clay is completely left behind. However, some say this clay did not disappear at all, but turned into eyes. John 9:7. And he said to him, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. He went and washed, and came back seeing. He commands the blind man to go to Siloam partly in order for the degree of his faith and obedience to be revealed, for he did not reason that there was no need to go to Siloam or wash himself if shaving and spitting made him fully sighted, but he obeyed the Commander; partly in order to stop the mouths of the foolish Jews, for, naturally, many looked at him when he walked with his eyes anointed with clay, and looked attentively at him, so that they could not subsequently say “it’s him”, “it’s not him”; and, finally, in order to, by sending him to Siloam, testify about Himself that He is not alien to the law and the Old Testament. Why did the evangelist add an explanation for the name Siloam? So that you know that here too Christ healed the blind man and that Siloam is the image of Christ. For Christ is both a spiritual Rock (1 Cor. 10:4) and a spiritual Siloam; and just as the Siloam stream, with its strange flow, represented something sudden and amazing, so the coming of the Lord, hidden and unknown to the angels, with its power drowns out all sin. John 9:8. Then the neighbors, who had seen before that he was blind, said: Isn’t this the one who sat and begged for alms? The neighbors, amazed by the extraordinary nature of the miracle, did not believe. Although his march to Siloam with his eyes anointed with clay was so that many would see him and then would not deny through ignorance, however, even now they do not believe. The Evangelist, not without intention, notes that he asked for alms, but to show the inexpressible love of the Lord in the fact that He condescended to the poor, that He healed the poor with great care, and from here we would learn not to despise our lesser brothers. John 9:9. Some said: this is him, and others: he looks like him. He said: it’s me. And the blind man, not ashamed of his previous misery, not afraid of the people, openly says: “It’s me.” John 9:10. Then they asked him: how did your eyes open? John 9:11. He answered and said, The man called Jesus made clay, anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash. I went, washed and received my sight. Preaches the Benefactor and says: “A man called Jesus.” He calls the Lord a Man, because until now he knew nothing about Him, and what he now knows is what he confesses. How does he know that it is Jesus? From his conversation with his disciples. The disciples asked the Lord about him. He answered them at some length: “I need to do the works of Him who sent Me; I am the light of the world." No one else taught this way except Jesus alone, and He often used such speech. This is how the blind man knew that it was Jesus. That He made clay and anointed his eyes, he knew from the touch and said. He kept silent about the spitting because he didn’t know, and since he didn’t know, he didn’t add anything. Apparently this man was righteous. John 9:12. Then they said to him: Where is He? He answered: I don’t know. Since the Lord, when giving healing and performing a miracle, usually hid himself out of His modesty, the blind man, when asked where Jesus is, says “I don’t know” in order to be completely faithful to the truth. John 9:13. They took this former blind man to the Pharisees. They take him to the Pharisees to subject him to more detailed and strict interrogation. John 9:14. And it was the Sabbath when Jesus made clay and opened his eyes. The Evangelist notes that “it was Saturday” to show their malice, how they seize every opportunity against Christ: they accuse Him of violating the Sabbath and thereby attempt to obscure the miracle. Therefore, they do not ask him “how did you receive your sight,” but “how did He open your eyes” - in everything they slander the Lord as He who acted on the Sabbath. John 9:15. The Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” They force the blindest man to remember that He made the clay on the Sabbath. He, answering those who had already heard, does not mention either the name of Jesus or what the Lord said to him, but only says: “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed and see.” For, probably, the Pharisees had previously heard from those who brought the blind man to them, and perhaps they slandered the Lord and said: “This is what Jesus does on the Sabbath.” The courage of the blind man is worthy of note, that he fearlessly speaks with the Pharisees. He was brought in so that he, struck with fear, would reject the reality of healing, and he very clearly proclaims: “I see.” John 9:16. Then some of the Pharisees said: This Man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said: how can a sinful person perform such miracles? And there was a quarrel between them. Some of the Pharisees, not all, but more daring ones, said: “This Man is not from God.” And others said: “How can a sinful man perform such miracles?” You see, under the influence of miracles, many soften. These people - the Pharisees, the leaders, however, as a result of this miracle, are ashamed and somewhat defensive. “And there was contention between them.” This discord occurred before among the people, for “some said that He deceives the people, and others that He is good” (John 7:12, 43), and now it begins between the leaders. And so many Pharisees, separating themselves from others, defend the miracle. However, even in separation they speak for Christ very weakly and more doubtfully and double-mindedly than firmly. For listen to what they say: “How can a sinful man perform such miracles?” Do you see how weakly they object? Look at the cunning of the slanderers. They do not say that He is not from God because He heals on the Sabbath, but that He “does not keep the Sabbath”; They constantly present themselves as not a good deed, but a violation of the day. Note also that leaders are slower to do good than the people. The people were already divided in opinion, and not everyone spoke against Christ, but the leaders, after the people, came to this laudable division. For sometimes division is good, as the Lord says: “I came to bring a sword to earth” (Matthew 10:34), that is, without a doubt, disagreement over goodness and piety. John 9:17. Again they say to the blind man: What will you say about Him, because He opened your eyes? Who were those who asked, “What do you say about Him?” These were among the prudent. For they said: “How can a sinner do such things?” In order not to seem like vain defenders, they bring into testimony the one who received the benefit, as having experienced His power, in order to stop the mouths of slanderers. Look how wisely they ask. They did not say, “What will you say about Him, because He made clay, because He did not keep the Sabbath,” but they remind us of the miracle – “because He opened your eyes,” as if inciting the healed person to tell the real truth about Christ. They remind him and encourage him: “Because He has opened your eyes.” “He,” they say, “blessed you. Therefore you must preach about Him.” The blind man now confessed what he could, namely: that He is not a sinner, but from God, this is a Prophet, although others say that He is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath. Christ anointed the clay with one finger, and He is considered a Sabbath breaker. They themselves untie the animals with their whole hand in order to give them water, and consider themselves pious. John 9:18. Then the Jews did not believe that he was blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. The hard-hearted and stubborn call on his parents in order to put them in difficulty and thereby force them to reject their son’s previous blindness. Since they could not stop well-intentioned lips, they intimidate the parents in the hope of destroying the miracle. So, they put them in the middle and interrogate them with rage and even greater malice. John 9:19. And they asked them: Is this your son, of whom you say that he was born blind? How can he see now? They do not say “is this your son who was once blind,” but “about whom you are speaking,” as if saying: “whom you made blind and spread the rumor about it everywhere, completely fictitious and false.” But, O wicked Pharisees! What kind of father would allow himself to lie like that about his child? On both sides they are constrained and forced to abandon their son, on the one hand, with the expression “about whom you are talking,” and on the other, with the question “how does he see now?” Do you see? With the false testimony of the parents that their son was previously blind, they humiliate this miracle - that he later became sighted. They say: “Either what he sees now is false, or that he was blind. But it is true that he is sighted; therefore, you falsely announced that he was formerly blind.” John 9:20. His parents answered and said to them: We know that this is our son and that he was born blind, John 9:21. But we don’t know how he sees now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. He himself is of advanced years; ask yourself; let him speak about himself. The Pharisees asked the parents of the blind man three questions: 1) is this their son? 2) was he born blind? and 3) how did he become sighted? They answer the first two questions in the affirmative, that this is their son and he was blind, and they do not answer about the method of healing due to ignorance. This happened, no doubt, so that the truth would be recognized more firmly, so that it would be witnessed by the one who received the benefit and therefore the most reliable witness, just as his parents say: “He himself is of advanced years, he is not a child or a minor, so that he does not understand how he was healed.” John 9:22. This is what his parents answered because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that whoever recognized Him as Christ would be excommunicated from the synagogue. John 9:23. That is why his parents said: he is of advanced age; ask yourself. This is what his parents answered because they were afraid of the Pharisees. They were unstable and more cowardly than their son. And he became a fearless witness of the truth; he began to see well with his mental eyes. John 9:24. So, they called the man who was blind a second time and said to him: Give glory to God; we know that Man is a sinner. Just as the parents insisted that their son should be asked, so do the arrogant ones. They bring him, but not to ask questions, but to instill in him an accusation against the Healer. For the suggestion “give glory to God” means confessing that Jesus did nothing for you, and in not attributing anything good to Jesus, they give the glory of God! “We,” they say, “know that He is a sinner.” Why didn’t you convict Him when He challenged you to this, saying, “Which of you will convict Me of sin” (John 8:46)? John 9:25. He answered and said to them, “Whether He is a sinner, I don’t know; One thing I know is that I was blind, but now I see. The blind man says: “I don’t know whether He is a sinner, and now I don’t experience it, nor do I affirm it. But I know very clearly that He performed a miracle on me.” So let this matter be considered in itself and give an idea of ​​Him. John 9:26. They asked him again: What did He do to you? How did I open your eyes? John 9:27. He answered them: I already told you, and you did not listen; what else do you want to hear? or do you also want to become His disciples? Then, when they again asked him “what did He do to you,” blaming the Savior for the fact that He anointed with clay on Saturday, this man realized that they were asking not to find out, but to accuse him, and answered them reproachfully: “I don’t want to talk to you anymore, because I told you many times, and you didn’t listen.” Then, what could especially hurt them, he adds: “Do you really want to become His disciples?” Obviously, he himself wants to be His disciple. Joking and laughing at them, he says this calmly; and this shows a soul that is bold and undaunted, and not afraid of their fury. John 9:28. They reproached him and said: You are His disciple, and we are Moses’ disciples. To offend him they say: “You are His disciple, and we are Moses’ disciples.” And here they are clearly lying. For if they had been disciples of Moses, they would have been Christ’s, just as He Himself tells them: “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me” (John 5:46). John 9:29. We know that God spoke to Moses; We don’t know where He comes from. They didn’t say “we heard,” but “we know that God spoke to Moses,” although their ancestors told them about it. About what they received by ear, they say “we truly know,” and the One whose miracles they saw with their own eyes, and whose Divine and heavenly teachings they themselves heard, is called a deceiver (John 7:12). You see to what madness their anger drove them. John 9:30. The man who received his sight answered and said to them: It is surprising that you do not know where He comes from, but He opened my eyes. “You,” he says, “Jews, reject my Healer because you don’t seem to know where He comes from. And I say that He is all the more worthy of surprise because, not being one of the noble and famous people among you, He can perform such deeds that clearly demonstrate that He possesses some kind of higher power and does not need any human help.” John 9:31. But we know that God does not listen to sinners; but whoever honors God and does His will listens to him. Then, since some of them had previously said: “How can a sinful man perform such miracles,” then he also takes up this condemnation of them and reminds them of their own words. “We,” he says, “all know that God does not listen to sinners, but listens to those who honor Him and do His will.” Note from here how he not only removes sins from the Lord, but also presents Him as a great saint of God and doing everything according to His will, when he says: “If anyone honors God and does His will.” Some go into cold and refined co-questioning. “How,” they say, “is it said that God does not listen to sinners? He is a lover of humanity. What do the words “God does not listen to sinners” mean here? Such a question should not be answered. However, it must be said that these words - “God does not listen to sinners” - express the idea that God does not give sinners the power to work miracles. For the Spirit of God will not dwell in a body covered with sins. Those who sincerely and from the heart ask for forgiveness of their sins, God listens not as sinners, but as repentants. For at the same time as they ask themselves for forgiveness, they have already moved from the ranks of sinners to the ranks of repentants. Therefore, it is rightly said that God does not listen to sinners. He does not give sinners the grace to perform miracles. For if they ever began to ask for something like that, then how will He give what they ask to those whom He hates because they appropriate for themselves something that is completely indecent for them? And if He listens to those asking for forgiveness, then He listens not as sinners, but as repentants. Take note. Having said “if anyone honors God,” he added “and does His will.” For many honor God, but do not fulfill the will of God. But there must be both together: reverence for God, and fulfillment of the will of God, in other words, faith and works, or, as the Apostle Paul put it, faith and a good conscience (1 Tim. 1:5), in short; contemplation and activity. For faith is truly alive when it also includes godly deeds, from which a good conscience arises, just as a bad conscience comes from bad deeds. And again, works are then alive when there is faith with them, but separated from each other they are dead, as it is said: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26), and works without faith. Notice, perhaps, what courage the truth gives to a poor, not at all remarkable person, and he denounces the great and glorious among the Jews. So great is the power of truth, while lies are very timid and timid. John 9:32. Since the beginning of time it has not been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. John 9:33. If He were not from God, He could not create anything. Further, knowing that they want to obscure the miracle, he preaches with full understanding about the good deed. If He had not been from God, He would not have performed such a miracle, which no one has performed since the ages. If, perhaps, the eyes of the blind were opened, they were not spoiled from birth, but from some illness. But what has happened now is an unheard of thing. So, obviously, the one who performed such a miracle is more than human. John 9:34. They answered him: You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us? As long as they hoped that this man would speak to please them, they called him and asked him, and more than once. But when they learned from the answers that he does not think the same as them, but is disposed towards the truth, they humiliate him as one born in sins. It is completely unreasonable to blame him for his blindness and think that he, as a very sinful person even before his birth, was condemned to be born blind, which is unfounded. Like the sons of lies, they drive him, the confessor of truth, out of the church. But it served him well. He was kicked out of the church, but the Lord of the church immediately found him. They dishonored him for his opinion in favor of Christ, but he was worthy to know the Son of God. John 9:35. When Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he found him, he said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” “Jesus,” it is said, “found him, like a hero of heroism who receives a wrestler who is very weak and crowned.” And what does he say? Do you believe in the Son of God? Why does he ask about this, when he argued so much with the Jews, spoke so much for Him? He does this not out of ignorance, but out of desire to teach the blind man to know about Himself. Before, he did not see Him at all, and even after healing him, he did not see Him, because the Jews, those worst dogs, dragged him here and there. Now He asks him in order to answer his question about who the Son of God is, very opportunely to point to Himself. At the same time, he shows him that He highly values ​​his faith, saying, as it were: “So many people have offended Me, but I do not hold it against them at all. I care about one thing – faith.” John 9:36. He answered and said: Who is He, Lord, that I should believe in Him? John 9:37. Jesus said to him: And you have seen Him, and He speaks to you. “Lord, who is this Son of God?” – he asks lovingly. Jesus answers: “He is the one whom you have seen and who is speaking to you.” He did not say, “It is I who healed you, who said to you, Go and wash,” but says first in a secret and unclear manner, “And you saw Him,” and then more clearly, “And He speaks to you.” The Lord, it seems, intentionally said “have you seen Him,” precisely to remind him of the healing and that he received the ability to see from Him. John 9:38. He said: I believe, Lord! And he bowed to Him. And he immediately believes and in fact reveals ardent and true faith, worships and confirms the word with deeds, which glorifies Him as God because the law commands us to worship God alone (Deut. 6:13). Please note that this miracle also happened in the spiritual sense. Every person in general was blind from birth, that is, from subjection to birth, with which corruption is connected, for since we were condemned to death and to reproduction through passionate birth, then a thick cloud has spread over our mental eyes, and, perhaps, that “clothing of skin” that the Holy Scripture mentions (Gen. 3:21). The pagan people, in particular, were blind. And he was blind from birth. For example, the Hellenes, because they deified what is born and perishable, became blind, according to what was said: “Their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:21). So the Persian sages (magicians) spent their lives talking about births and birthdays. Jesus “saw” this blind man, that is, every person in general, or, in particular, the pagans. Just as the blind man could not see the Creator, He, out of the compassion of mercy, Himself “visited us, the East from above” (Luke 1:78). How did you see it? “Passing,” that is, not being in heaven, and, according to the prophet, bowing down “from heaven and looking upon all the sons of men” (Ps. 13:2), but appearing on earth. And in another sense: “as he passed by” he saw the pagans, that is, he did not come to them primarily. For He came “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24), and then, as if in passing, He looked at the pagans sitting in the darkness of complete ignorance. How is blindness treated? Spit on the ground and make clay. For whoever believes that the Word descended into the Holy Virgin as a drop dripping onto the ground will anoint his mental eyes with clay from spitting and earth, that is, the one Christ, consisting of the Divinity, whose sign (symbol) is the drop and the spit, and Humanity, the sign of which is the earth, from which the body of the Lord. Will healing stop with faith? No; one must also go to Siloam, the source of baptism, and be baptized into the One who was sent, that is, Christ. For all of us who were spiritually baptized were baptized into Christ. And whoever is baptized will then be subject to temptations. Perhaps, because of Christ who healed him, “they will lead him before kings and rulers” (Luke 21:12). Therefore one must be firm and steadfast in one’s confession; not to renounce out of fear, but, if necessary, to become both excommunicated and expelled from the synagogue, according to what was said: “You will be hated by all because of My name” (Matthew 24:9), and “they will drive you out of the synagogues” (John 16:2). If people who are hostile to the truth drive out its confessor and remove him from what is holy and precious to them, that is, from wealth and glory, then Jesus will find him, and when he is dishonored by his enemies, then he will be especially honored by Christ with knowledge and the most thorough faith. For then Christ will be most worshiped as a visible Man and as the true Son of God. For there is not another Son of God and another Son of Mary, as Nestorius wickedly blasphemed, but one and the same Son of God and Man. Look. When someone who was once blind asked: “Who is the Son of God, that I should believe in Him,” then the Lord answered: “He is the One whom you have seen and who speaks to you.” Who spoke if not the One Born of Mary? And He is the Son of God, but not one or the other. Why is Saint Mary truly the Mother of God. For She gave birth to the Son of God, who became flesh, inseparable and in two natures, One, Who is Christ the Lord. John 9:39 And Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” The Lord saw that the Pharisees received more harm from the miracle than benefit, and through this they became worthy of greater condemnation, and therefore says: “As it seems and as it turns out in reality, I came to judgment, that is, for greater punishment, so that those who do not see would see and those who see, like the Pharisees, would become blind with the eyes of their souls. For the one who does not see from birth sees both in soul and in body, but those who consider themselves to see have become blind in mind.” Here He speaks of vigilance and blindness of two kinds. John 9:40. When some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, they said to Him, “Are we also blind?” The Pharisees, who always grasped at the sensual, thought that He was talking about sensual blindness, and said: “Are we really blind?” They were ashamed of this bodily blindness alone. John 9:41. Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you would have no sin; but as you say what you see, the sin remains on you. And the Lord wanted to show them that it is better to be blind in body than to be unbelievers, and said: “If you were blind, you would not have sin.” For if you were by necessity, by nature, blind, you could be given forgiveness for the unbelief with which you are infected. But now you say that you see and, however, having witnessed a miracle over a blind man, you still remain in unbelief, and therefore are unworthy of forgiveness. For your sin remains ineradicable, and you will be punished all the more because you do not come to faith when the miracles are obvious. These words “if you were blind, you would have no sin” can be understood this way. You are asking about bodily blindness, which is the only thing you are ashamed of. And I am talking about your spiritual blindness, that “if you were blind,” that is, ignorant of the Scriptures, then “you would not have such a grave sin,” for you would sin out of ignorance. And now you say what you see, and present yourself as intelligent and experienced in the law, therefore you condemn yourself and have a greater sin on yourself, because you sin deliberately.