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Translation
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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth." Being full of love for man, and caring for our salvation, and desiring to stop the mouths of the foolish, He omitteth nothing of His own part, though there be none to give heed. …
Cyril of Alexandria
While the Jews were raging against Him and now essaying to wound Him with stones, forthwith He goes forth of the temple that is among them, and takes Him away from the unholiness of His pursuers. And in passing by, straightway He seeth one blind from his birth, and setteth him as a token and that most clear that He will remove from the abominable behaviour of the Jews, and will leave the multitude of the God-opposers, and will rather visit the Gentiles, and to them transfer the abundance of His Clemency. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
The Lord departs from the temple in order to somewhat temper the wrath of the Jews. He proceeds to heal the blind man so that by this sign He might soften their hard-heartedness and obstinacy, although they did not profit from it, and at the same time to show them that it was not in vain or out of self-glorification that He said, "Before Abraham was, I am" (Jn. 8:58). It is fitting that He Himself approached the blind man, and not the blind man to Him.
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
All, certainly, that was done by our Lord Jesus Christ, both works and words, are worthy of our astonishment and admiration: His works, because they are facts; His words, because they are signs. If we reflect, then, on what is signified by the deed here done, that blind man is the human race; for this blindness had place in the first man through sin, from whom we all draw our origin, not only in respect of death, but also of unrighteousness. …
Ambrose of Milan
You have heard, my brother, the lesson of the Gospel, wherein it is narrated that as the Lord Jesus passed by He saw a man which was blind from his birth. Now if the Lord saw him He did not pass him by, neither ought we to pass him by whom the Lord overlooked not; especially since he was blind from his birth, which is not mentioned without reason. …
Bede
Mystically, our Lord, after being banished from the minds of the Jews, passed over to the Gentiles. (non occ.). The passage or journey here is His descent from heaven to earth, where He saw the blind man, i. e. looked with compassion on the human race.
Translation