How could we not tell anyone?
(A poetic reflection on Matthew 9: 27-34), Daily Office Readings for Friday, October 8, 2021: AM Psalm 140, 142; PM Psalm 141, 143:1-11(12); 2 Kings 23:36-24:17; 1 Cor. 12:12-26; Matt. 9:27-34
I admit it–
He told us not to tell anyone…
and yeah, we did.
But how could we not tell anyone?
The first thing everyone was going to ask
was why we were no longer blind.
What were we to say? That somehow, we did it ourselves?
Years ago,
We both ran into one another,
Both of us on the same street corner,
Begging.
You’ve heard the old phrase about “the blind leading the blind.”
I guess you could say
We figured we were better off combining the senses we had
And working together
Rather than competing against each other.
Someone who had been in the crowd
when the woman touched his robe and was healed
said that Jesus told us the same thing he told her–
That it was our faith, not him, that healed us.
We’re both going to have to think that one over.
Neither of us saw ourselves as individuals of great faith.
We only knew that every day we woke up and faced the world,
we had each other
whether it was a good day or bad.
Perhaps we only thought of faith
as something pious, constantly praying people do
loudly and publicly in the synagogue…
And we never thought to believe
that our ordinary days
Consisting of getting enough charity to eat
And a safe place to sleep
was, in reality, an act of faith.
I know he told us (pretty sternly, in fact)
Not to tell anyone how we got our sight back…
Yet we can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt
We have no problems telling you how he taught us to believe again.
Maria Evans splits her week between being a pathologist and laboratory director in Kirksville, MO, and gratefully serving in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri , as Interim Priest at Trinity-St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hannibal, MO.