I Do Believe The belief is still prevalent today that bad things happen to people because they deserved it; that some people’s lives are blighted by troubles but it is because of their sin, because of their wrong doing. People still say, “I must have done something really bad for this to have happened to me.” “Why is God punishing me, am I so bad?” Yet we all know very well that calamities and disasters are no respecter of persons, these things happen to all, to the bad and the good, to the rich and to the poor alike. The sun not only shines on the righteous, but on the unrighteous too. The rain falls on all. Are the many people around the world who die daily from natural disasters any worse a person than any other. Was anyone we know personally, cut down by cancer, a stroke or a heart attack, any worse a person than anybody else? In our Gospel, Jesus is quite adamant about this. “No,” Says Jesus, “His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parent’s sins.” And Jesus in effect goes on to say that God uses these bad things to show his glory, “He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.” And notice Jesus doesn’t try to answer the problem of the suffering of the innocent, for there is no easy answer. Jesus re-creates the blind man into a seeing disciple and believer. We, too, are called to be disciples who re-create others and bring them to stalwart belief in the One who brings the gift of healing salvation. As God’s creation, we are never finished. Jesus works in us to bring completion and fullness of light and life.