Questions.
14. Question I. But here a question arises first concerning what the disciples say: Who sinned, this man, or his parents?
From this they seem to imply that children are punished for the sins of their parents.
Against this is that passage from Ezekiel 18: The father shall not bear the iniquity of the son, nor the son the iniquity of the father: therefore the son ought not to be punished for the sin of the parents. The contrary of this is stated in Exodus 20: Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.
I respond: It must be said that the punishment of sin is twofold: one temporal, the other eternal. I say that with eternal punishment a son is not punished for the iniquity of the father: whence even if unbaptized infants are deprived of the eternal vision, this is not on account of the sin of the father alone, but their own, because each one has original sin.
Concerning temporal punishment, however, it must be understood that the son bears the iniquity of the father; because frequently a wicked father is punished in his son: therefore he says: Unto the third and fourth generation, because up to that generation parents can see their children.
Others say differently, that this is understood of children who imitate the crime of their father, but the first interpretation is better.
15. Question II. Likewise there is a question concerning what he says: Neither did this man sin, etc.
Against this: No one is pure from filth, not even an infant whose life upon the earth is of one day.
Augustine responds that that text is to be supplied thus: "He did not sin with a sin on account of which this punishment would be inflicted on the blind man." And the disciples were asking indiscriminately, as Chrysostom says, because before he was born, he could not have sinned so as to be born blind.
But then it is objected: 1. Because if every punishment is on account of fault, and this man did not sin nor did his parents: therefore he was born blind unjustly, and the punishment was unjustly inflicted.
2. Likewise, Jerome, on that passage of Jeremiah 4: Your ways and your thoughts have done these things to you, says: "Whatever punishment befalls us is from our own vice."
3. Likewise, if you say that it was for the glory of God: could not the glory of God have been manifested otherwise than thus? And God for his glory does not need our goods, therefore much less our evils.
I respond: It must be said that there is a cause without which not, and in this way every punishment has fault as its cause, because if there had been no fault, there would be no punishment at all. In another way there is a meritorious cause, and thus not every punishment regards fault, and in this way the Lord speaks here. Indeed, as Damascene says, sometimes punishments are inflicted on account of the guilt of fault. Sometimes for the testing and manifestation of virtue, as in Tobit and Job, who said: I have not sinned, and my eye dwells in bitterness, Job 17. Sometimes for the preservation of virtue, as in Paul, who said: There was given to me a thorn of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me: for which reason I three times besought the Lord, etc., 2 Corinthians 12. Sometimes on account of the dispensation of the divine counsel, as in Christ. Sometimes for the manifestation of the divine power, as in this blind man.
Nor was this done only for God's sake, but for our instruction and for the benefit of the blind man, because by the occasion of bodily illumination he was spiritually illuminated: whence great was his benefit.
16. Question III. It is asked concerning what he says, that it is necessary for him to work while it is day.
But for God it is always day: therefore he never ceases to work.
It must be said that he speaks here of the works which he works for us and in us, according to that passage of Isaiah 26: All our works you have worked in us, O Lord. And with regard to these works night comes, when the last day is closed to us, after which neither will we be able to work, nor God in us nor for us amid evils: whence Matthew 22: Bind his hands and feet and cast him into the outer darkness.
17. Question IV. Here the manner of the cure is asked about: 1. Since the Lord healed others by command alone, why is it that he does this with clay?
2. And why does he command him to wash?
I respond: It must be said that the reason was allegorical and moral, as was said above, for the instruction of our knowledge and action; there was also a literal reason. For since by just judgment at his coming both the blind were to be enlightened and the Pharisees were to be blinded, he made clay, by which he would seem to violate the Sabbath, and through this the filthy one would become more filthy, and from this the blind man himself would be enlightened and purified.
2. He sent him to the pool so that the miracle would be public, as Chrysostom says; because all gathered for so great a spectacle, that by clay, from which others are blinded, the blind man is enlightened.
In the second part, the dispute of the Pharisees is described.
18. And they said to him: Where is he? After the wondrous enlightenment of the blind man has been set forth, here follows the second part, in which the calumny of the Jews arising from this is described. And this part is divided into three. In the first, it is shown how the Pharisees strive to censure Christ. Second, how they strive to deny the miracle, at: They therefore said again to the blind man: What do you say, etc. Third, how, failing in these, they strive to conceal it, at: They therefore called the man again.
First, therefore, it is described how they strive to censure the miracle with authority in this manner. For first, the anxiety of those censuring is intimated; second, the occasion for censuring; third, the censure itself .