"Lord, who is the Son of God?" he asks with love. Jesus answers: "He is the One whom you have seen and who is speaking with you." He did not say "It is I who healed you, who told you: go, wash," but speaks first in a veiled and unclear way, "you have seen Him," and then more clearly, "and He is speaking with you." The Lord, it seems, said "you have seen Him" intentionally, precisely in order to remind him of his healing and of the fact that he received the ability to see from Him.
Jn. 9:38. Lord, he said, I believe! And he worshiped Him.
And he immediately believes and in deed reveals a faith that is fervent and true, worships and by action confirms the word, that he glorifies Him as God because the law commands to worship God alone (Deut. 6:13).
Note, if you will, that this miracle was also accomplished in a spiritual sense. Blind was every man in general from birth, that is, from subjection to birth, with which corruption is joined, for from the time we were condemned to death and to multiplication through passionate birth, from that time a kind of thick cloud spread over our mental eyes, and perhaps that "garment of skin" which Holy Scripture mentions (Gen. 3:21).
Blind was, in particular, the pagan people. And they were blind from birth. For example, the Greeks, because they deified what is born and corruptible, became blind, according to the saying: "Their foolish heart was darkened" (Rom. 1:21). Likewise the wise men (magi) of Persia spent their lives in discussions about birth and birthdays.
This blind man, that is, every person in general, or the Gentiles in particular, Jesus "saw." Since the blind man could not see the Creator, He, out of the compassion of His mercy, Himself "visited us, the Dayspring from on high" (Luke 1:78). How did He see him? "Passing by," that is, not while being in heaven and, in the words of the prophet, bowing down "from heaven and looking upon all the sons of men" (Ps. 13:2), but having appeared on earth. And in another sense: "passing by" He saw the Gentiles, that is, He did not come to them primarily. For He came "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15:24), and then, as if in passing, He also looked upon the Gentiles, sitting in the darkness of complete ignorance.
How does He heal blindness? By spitting on the ground and making clay. For whoever believes that the Word descended into the holy Virgin like a drop falling upon the earth, that person will anoint his spiritual eyes with clay made from spittle and earth, that is, with the one Christ, composed of Divinity — of which the drop and the spittle serve as a sign (symbol) — and Humanity, of which the earth serves as a sign, from which is the body of the Lord.
Will the healing stop at faith? No; one must also go to Siloam, the fountain of baptism, and be baptized into the One who was Sent, that is, Christ. For all of us who were spiritually baptized were baptized into Christ. And whoever is baptized will after this be subjected to temptations as well. Perhaps for the sake of Christ who healed him, he will be "brought before kings and governors" (Luke 21:12). Therefore one must be firm and stand unwavering in confession; not deny out of fear, but, if need be, become both excommunicated and cast out of the synagogue, according to what was said: "you will be hated by all for My name's sake" (Matt. 24:9), and "they will put you out of the synagogues" (Jn. 16:2).
If people who are hostile to the truth drive out the one who confesses it and remove him from what is holy and precious to them, that is, from wealth and glory, then Jesus will find him, and when he is dishonored by his enemies, he will be especially honored by Christ with knowledge and a more thorough faith. For then he will worship Christ most of all as the Man who is seen and as the true Son of God. For the Son of God is not one person and the Son of Mary another, as Nestorius impiously blasphemed, but One and the Same is Son of God and Son of Man. Look. When the man who was once blind asked, "Who is the Son of God, that I may believe in Him?" the Lord answered, "It is He whom you have seen and who is speaking with you." And who was speaking, if not He who was born of Mary? Yet He is also the Son of God — not one and another. Therefore holy Mary is truly the Theotokos. For She gave birth to the Son of God who became flesh, undivided and One in two natures, who is Christ the Lord.
Jn. 9:39. And Jesus said: I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
The Lord saw that the Pharisees drew more harm than benefit for themselves from the miracle, and through this became worthy of greater condemnation, and therefore He says: "As it appears and as it turns out in practice, I came for judgment, that is, for greater punishment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who see, such as the Pharisees, might become blind in the eyes of their soul. For behold, the one blind from birth sees both with his soul and with his body, while those who consider themselves seeing have become blind in mind." Here He speaks of keenness of sight and blindness of a twofold kind.
Jn. 9:40. Having heard this, some of the Pharisees who were with Him said to Him: Are we also blind?
The Pharisees, always grasping at the sensible, thought that He was speaking of sensible blindness, and said: "Are we blind also?" They were ashamed of this bodily blindness alone.
Jn. 9:41. Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, "We see," therefore your sin remains.
But the Lord wanted to show them that it is better to be blind in body than to be unbelieving, and said: "If you were blind, you would have no sin." For if you were blind by necessity, by nature, forgiveness could have been granted to you for the unbelief with which you are infected. But now you say that you see, and yet, having been eyewitnesses of the miracle upon the blind man, you still remain in unbelief, and therefore are unworthy of forgiveness. For your sin remains indelible, and you will be punished all the more because you do not come to faith despite evident miracles.
These words, "if you were blind, you would have no sin," can also be understood in this way. You ask about bodily blindness, which alone you are ashamed of. But I speak of the blindness of your soul, that "if you were blind," that is, ignorant of Scripture, then "you would not have so heavy a sin upon you," for you would be sinning out of ignorance. But now you say that you see, and you present yourselves as learned and experienced in the law, and therefore you condemn yourselves and have upon you a greater sin, because you sin knowingly.