Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/625

 answered and  said  to  them: “For  in  this  is  a wonderful  thing,  that you know  not  from  whence  He  is,  and  He  hath  opened  my  eyes. From the  beginning  of  the  world  it  hath  not  been  heard  that  any man hath  opened  the  eyes  of  one  born  blind. Unless this  man were of  God,  He  could  not  do  anything.”  Then  they,  being angry, said  to  him:  “Thou  wast  wholly  born  in  sins ;  and  dost thou teach  us?”  Thereupon  they  cast  him  out.

But Jesus  met  him  and  said  to  him:  “Dost  thou  believe  in the  Son  of  God?”  He  answered:  “Who  is  He,  Lord,  that  I may believe in  Him?”  Jesus  replied:  “Thou  hast  both  seen  Him,  and it is  He  who  talketh  with  thee.”  Then  the  man  said:  “I  believe, Lord!” and  falling  down  he  adored  Him.

Our Lord's testimony  to  His  own  Divinity.  Jesus  revealed  Himself to the  man  born  blind,  as  the  Son  of  God: “He  who  is  talking  to  thee is He — the  Son  of  God.”  Moreover,  when  the  man  fell  down  before Him and  worshipped  Him  as  God,  Jesus  suffered  him  to  do  it. Jesus is, then,  the  true  Son  of  God,  to  whom  divine  worship  is  due.

Proof of  our  Lord's Divinity.  Jesus  said  He  was  the  Son  of  God, and He  proved  the  truth  of  His  words  by  a stupendous  miracle. His enemies examined  this  miracle  judicially,  and  hoped  to  disprove  its existence, by  entrapping  the  man  with  cross-questionings  into  some contradiction of  his  own  words,  which  would  have  shown  that  the  whole thing was  a deception. But they  could  not  succeed  in  their  design,  and the wonderful  deed  could  not  be  denied  by  any  one.

The prophecy  of  Isaias was  literally  fulfilled  by  our  Lord’s  cure  of this  man  born  blind,  as  well  as  by  those  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  man, and of  the  man  infirm  for  thirty-eight  years,  and  also  by  many  other cures: “Then  shall  the  eyes  of  the  blind  be  opened,  and  the  ears  of