Blessed Are They Whose Eyes Are Closed

My good friends, why have you called me? Is it so that I might place my hands upon this poor sufferer here and heal her?

Ah! Such suffering, good God! She has lost her sight and darkness has come upon her. Poor child! May she pray and hope. I do not know how to perform miracles apart from the will of the good God. All the healings I was able to receive, and which were pointed out to you, may be attributed only to the One who is our Father in everything.

In your afflictions, therefore, always look to heaven and say from the bottom of your heart, “My Father, heal me, but may my infirm soul be healed before the infirmities of my body; may my flesh be chastised if need be so that my soul may ascend to you with the whiteness it had when you created it.” After this prayer, my good friends, which the good God will always hear, strength and courage will be given to you, and perhaps also the healing that you have only timidly asked for as recompense for your self-denial.

Nevertheless, since I am here in a gathering that deals with study more than anything else, I will tell you that those who have been deprived of their sight should regard themselves as the blessed ones of expiation. Remember that Christ said it is better to pluck out your eye if it is evil and that it would be better if it were cast into the fire than be the cause of your perdition. Alas! How many there are on your earth, who someday in the darkness will curse having seen the light! Oh! Yes, how happy are they who in expiation have been struck in their sight! Their eyes will not be a cause for scandal or downfall; they can fully live the life of the soul; they can see more than you who see clearly... Whenever God allows me to open the eyes of any of these poor sufferers and restore their sight, I say to myself: Dear soul, why do you not know about the delights of the spirit that lives in contemplation and love? You would not be asking to see images that are less pure and less sweet than those that have been given to you to behold in your blindness.

Oh! Yes, blessed are the blind who want to live with God. They are happier than you who are here, for they feel happiness, they touch it, they see souls and can soar with them in spirit realms that the predestined of your earth do not see. The open eye is always ready to cause the soul to fail; the shut eye, on the other hand, is always ready to enable it to reach God. Believe me well, my good and dear friends, blindness of the eyes is often the true light of the heart, while sight is frequently the dark angel that leads to death.

And now, a few words for you, my poor suffering woman: wait and be of good cheer! If I were to tell you: My daughter, your eyes shall be opened, how joyous you would be! But who knows if such joy would not lead to your loss! Trust in the good God who bestows happiness and allows sadness! I shall do everything for you that is allowed, but you in turn must pray, and especially, meditate on everything I have just said.

Before I leave, may all you gathered here receive my blessing.

Vianney, priest of Ars (Paris, 1863)