Бренность

Let us turn to the words of the Gospel: “he anointed the eyes of the blind with clay” (John 9:6). Our Lord, wanting not only to heal bodily blindness, but also to heal spiritual vision, put clay on man’s eyes, so that he would always have before his eyes the earth from which he was created, and so that he would not ascend with a proud mind to heaven, but would always remember the ancient saying of the Lord to the forefathers: “you are dust, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:19). Many people in this world, in their prosperity, forget that their nature is perishable. Those who have a lot of gold in their treasuries consider themselves to be gold, those rich in silver consider themselves to be silver, those who have many precious stones consider themselves to be precious stones, those with authority and power consider themselves to be gods, like that Herod, to whom the people exclaimed: “This is the voice of God, and not of man” (Acts 12:22). So, the Lord, wanting to heal the blind, puts clay on his eyes and thus, as it were, says: “He who was born blind! You have not yet seen the light of day from your shrouds, but you have not seen the vanity of the world. Today you will see all this: gold, silver and precious stones will be before your eyes - do not covet them, but have this rotten thing before your eyes. If you see the pride of this world, do not covet it, but remember the rot, remember that you are dust and ashes (Gen. 18:27). If you see the beauty of worldly faces, do not envy them, but look at the earth from which you were taken and into which you will be transformed again. Shield your eyes with clay, that is, the memory of death, so as not to see vanity” (1). You might be interested in: