On the Sixth Sunday of Pascha, the Church recalls the healing of the man born blind. Known as the Sunday of the Blind Man, it is truly about faith. The Blind Man saw Christ as God with his heart. The Pharisees refused to see Christ as God, not because they eyes didn’t work, but because they thought it was easier to remain in their sins. Too often, we do no live as if we believe, like the Pharisees. The time has come for us to change our lives, and finally live the faith we claim.

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My brothers and sisters, today is called the Sunday of the Blind Man. It is obvious because it involves the healing of a man born blind. Not a man who got his blindness from some illness, some fever, but from the moment of birth he was blind. And so, we hear the story of Christ healing the young man. But I believe that today is better to understand as the Sunday of faith because we see many people who can see the works of God, but refuse to believe in the works that they see with their own eyes. And so, we have to wonder, why do the Pharisees refuse to believe the miracle that they just witnessed? In fact, they were so insistent that they claimed the man had not been born blind because it was easier for them to think that some miracle had not taken place so that they did not have to believe in Christ. Because if they believed in Christ, they had to change their life. And so, it was easier for them to refuse to believe the miracle right in front of their faces.

But that didn’t work. They called the mother, they called the boy several times. They said to the parents, “Is this your son? You claim he was born blind. How can he see now?” And the parents confirmed, “Yes, this is our son. Yes, he was born blind. I don’t know how he can see”. So they were forced to believe the miracle. So what was their only choice? Then they had to say that Christ was not from God because it was the Sabbath day. Over and over again, they see the power of God and because they don’t want to change their lives, they refuse to believe what is right in front of their faces.

And my brothers and sisters, we live the same life. Every Sunday, we recite the creed, “I believe in one God, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth”, but we do not believe enough to change our life. We are not living every day, when we walk out these doors today, we will not have changed our life. Week after week, after week. So either we don’t really believe what we say or we don’t believe the power that we see in front of us. This is why this Sunday’s gospel is so important. It’s the last Sunday. We’re going to sing Christos Anesti until next year. Christ proclaims himself the light of the world. And yet, we live in our sin day in and day out. So something has to change. Something has to change in our life. And the best change we can make is to come and beg for God’s forgiveness, come to confession and get a brand new start in our life with Christ.

In the epistle, we heard the guard speaking to Peter, “What do I have to do?”, because the guard witnessed God’s power and he was baptized. He changed his life. Every single one of us has seen God’s power. Whether you want to admit it or not, God’s power has been shown right in front of us. Now is our chance to change our life and to live the faith we claim. It’s funny because the Pharisees kept going to the young man, “Tell us, how did you see? How did this happen? Who did this to you?”, over and over and over again. And he said, “I already told you. Could it be that you want to be his disciples also?” Even at the very last moment, they had an opportunity to change their hearts. And what did they say about the man? You’re born in sin and you’re going to tell us? You dare to teach us? Get out of here. And they sent him away.

But the man was not without hope and help. He was in the temple and Christ, knowing he had been sent away, knowing he had been disparaged by the Pharisees, Christ says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who, so that I can believe?” “I who speak to you am he.” And the gospel says he believed and he worshiped him. Do you believe? Do you believe enough to live it? Then from this moment forward, let’s live that new life. Let’s live that life of faith. Let’s open the eyes of our hearts to God and his power and his miracles and his grace. And let’s stop casting out the people who have doubts. Let’s show them the power of God as this man showed to the Pharisees and live in the grace of our Lord. Christos Anesti.