Two Aspects of Blindness
Many of us have asked for the Lord to open our eyes. Yet many of us are satisfied with a superficial “healing”. It is not the single touch that brings complete spiritual healing; it is the continual grasp of faith. Consider Virgil, another case study from Dr. Sacks.
Virgil had been virtually blind since early childhood. He had thick cataracts and had been diagnosed as having a condition that would lead to the slow deterioration of his retinas. After becoming engaged though, Virgil’s fiancé suggested he consult a different specialist. The doctor revised Virgil’s diagnosis. Surgery to improve Virgil’s vision was possible and was done. But Virgil had been blind for a long time, and it turns out that seeing is more than just having functioning eyes.
. . . able to see but not deciphering what he was seeing.
Dr. Sack’s records that “Virgil’s behavior was certainly not that of a sighted man, but it was not that of a blind man, either. It was, rather, the behavior of a mentally blind, or agnosic — able to see but not to decipher what he was seeing.” (An Anthropologist on Mars, 117)
Did you catch the significance of this man’s condition? He could see, but he did not know what he was seeing.