“As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth,” who was thus judged a sinner. Disciples, influenced by their culture’s values, ask if his blindness is the sin of “this man or his parents.” Jesus replied, “Neither,” “it is so the works of God might be made visible through him.” Jesus then healed the man, “he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes.” Rulers, specifically Pharisees, who set the culture’s values and judge the blind man a sinner, are upset he is healed. Jesus suggests it is thus the rulers who are blind and commit the sin.
What is our blindness? Of great current concern is our blindness to living in a U.S. Empire. What is the sin we commit? Is it our support for it? We are likely average people taught to identify as citizens, influenced to value national loyalty, trained to honor the nation’s soldiers who do unhealthy deeds. Perhaps we have chosen no other identity, decided to value no other people, trained to honor no other way of life. Given the preeminence of nationalism, we may never look to see if another Way is possible. Members of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), whose primary care is for mental health, thought they had crafted another way. They crafted an independent identity, an integrity of values, a code for another way of life consisting of healthy deeds. But some members joined with this Empire’s Militarists for their unhealthiness. It was most pronounced in Militarism’s torture of human beings imprisoned at Abu Ghraib. James Risen writing about it in his book, Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War, prompted the APA to commission an investigation. The subsequent Hoffman Report can be said to detail the APA’s blindness and thus their sins. Military and CIA officials with APA member guidance routinely tortured human beings it imprisoned. Officials violated them through mental, physical, and sexual abuse, torture, rape, sodomy, and murder. Some took photos but they recede as wallpaper to which we become blind. The military’s/CIA’s response to its blindness and sins is to admit nothing, deny everything, and assault with counter-accusations. Like the rulers upset with the blind man healed, Militarism’s officials are upset with the APA’s attempts to heal their blindness. Rulers are exerting force still against the APA to turn a blind eye to Militarism’s unhealthiness. Those not blinded by the military continue attempts at healing the psychiatric profession. Others argue the profession is itself unhealthy, depressed by clinical hierarchy and lacking a social ethic. Professor Max Bazerman is among those attempting a social ethic and a social healing. In Blind Spots: Why We Fail To Do What’s Right and What To Do About It, Bazerman asserts “that good people do bad things without being aware that they are doing anything wrong.” But that of course is the point of Militarism and its unhealthy system. It is devised to make good people blind to an Empire’s sin of being unhealthy; willing to torture and to kill human beings as policy. These Militarists, like their Pharisaical ancestors, claim sight; ‘Surely we are not blind’ – all the while their unhealthiness keeps them blind. They are blind to the death of innocent civilians termed collateral damage. They are blind to war’s weapons costing trillions of dollars that leave few dollars for a Global Pandemic Council or universal health care or public health needs such as ventilators, masks, Covid-19 Test Kits, and personal protective equipment for health care professionals. Perpetually we see unhealthy deeds and weapons of war funded while we see healthy care and people missioned to create it unfunded. Compassion and kindness are core to anyone’s healing. They are certainly core to society’s healing. We can see the healing in nurses and doctors serving those who are ill. We can see the healing in songs shared across the piazza, in family visiting elderly parents through the window of their nursing home, in neighbors making grocery runs for neighbors unable to get out. Each person and each community of healing is curing us of our blindness to warmakers and their unhealthy deeds.
“He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands… something is happening. (He sees) a stranger’s features faintly start to twist before his eyes, a half formed ghost. He remembers the cries… A hundred agonies in black and white from which his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement.” (War Photographer – Carol Ann Duffy)
Prayer: Spirit, give me the courage of sight.
Question: What is the greater health to which I am blind and what will I do to see?
March 22, 2020 Gospel John 9:1-41 Fourth Sunday of Lent
Sun, Mar 29, 2020 5th Sunday of Lent