The Lord anointed my eyes: I went, I washed, I saw and I believed in God.” (Communion Antiphon from 4th Sunday of Lent)
Before I realized the Lord was calling me to the contemplative religious life, I wanted to be an English teacher. I love WORDS (and punctuation too, for that matter)! And if I had to pick one particular set of words that I love the most, it would be ADJECTIVES – glorious, lovely, expressive adjectives! I have always loved adjectives. However, the Communion Antiphon from Sunday shook up my adjective-crazed world and now I may have a new favorite set of words: ACTION VERBS! 
Why this sudden change? Well, action verbs and Jesus make a great team!
Before going on, to jog your memory, the Gospel on Sunday was about the healing of the man born blind (see John 9: 1-41). The Communion Antiphon beautifully sums up the long Gospel account in less than 20 words: The Lord anointed my eyes: I went, I washed, I saw and I believed in God.
What I really love about the antiphon is how it ends – “and I believed in God.” Doesn’t “believe” seem like both a dynamic and a stative verb in this sentence (an action and continuous state). How cool is that?!? And how true is that!?!?! (*Dear Grammar Police, I know this is not possible, but we’re talking about spiritual things here…so please be forgiving!)
There is this action on the part of Jesus – “The Lord anointed my eyes.” Then everything gets going for the blind man: “I went, I washed, I saw”. And then there is this gloriously dynamic statement: “I believed.” WOW! There is something so striking about how the antiphon ends (seems more like a beginning, huh?). This ‘believing’ is the direct result of a personal encounter. And, I would dare to say, it is something that the once blind man would NEVER be able to deny. A personal encounter with the Lord gives a powerful experiential dimension to our belief. It makes denying our belief next to impossible. And it makes it possible for us to say with every fiber of our being: Believing in God is truly the gateway to a world of new sight, love, joy, beauty, activity, healing and continuous wonder. It is the gateway to Heart of God.
Suffice it to say, when we encounter the Lord Jesus, life will never be the same (and we will never be bored again!). Once He anoints us, action verbs take on a whole new meaning! Let us never forget, though, the first action verb always belongs to Him.
The Lord anointed my eyes: I went, I washed, I saw and I believed in God.”
Seeing the three action words “I came, I washed and I saw” remind me of the old Roman saying “I came, I saw, I conquered.” In the situation of the now seeing man, he might have said, “He (Jesus) came, I saw, and He conquered (my blindness and my heart.)” Healing led to faith. In reading Scripture we see that the Lord used many different ways to reach people–healing them, feeding them, instructing them, loving them, and most of all, dying for them. Who can look upon a crucifix and not realize that our God loves us more than we can imagine. It is now for us to come to the foot of the cross, to see and to be conquered by the Lord. He continues to call, to use another action word. Thank you Sister for your wonderful words. You do have a way with them!
“The Lord anointed my eyes” this touched my heart deeply. I will remember to repeat this sentence many times a day, so that I see others through the eyes of Jesus. (more forgiving, overlooking faults etc) Thank you Sister
I have so enjoyed your blogs. Sadly, I am giving up the internet as of April 8th because of a very old and sick computer that will no longer have anti-virus protection. I will miss your wonderful messages but am happy that I will continue to receive your newsletter. May God bless all of you and bring to a successful completion your new monastery.
It seems that I am going to be able to continue to enjoy your blogs. I have been granted a miracle. I received an e-mail from a friend in Maine who let me know that she is sending me a computer. Her sister went home to the Lord in September and she has been holding on to her computer since then. She said that yesterday morning she was begging the Lord for wisdom as to what she should do with the computer. Then my message arrived and that was it. She said that I am an answer to her prayers. And she is an answer to mine. So I will have a newer computer in about two weeks. Please whisper a prayer for Bea who is being so generous toward me and who is having a major problem with blood pressure. Our God is an awesome God indeed. What a beautiful miracle!!!! Thank You, Lord for meeting my need. You always meet my needs and sometimes in very unexpected ways.
I have been reading the Scripture for past 55 years, reading Jesus and action verbs has opened my blind eyes of the soul.
The verbs anointed, went, washed and saw have been wonderful spiritual manna and quails .
Thank you Lord for enlightening me on this passage of the scripture, St.John chapter 9.