#43 | The Miracle Was Right In Front Of You

A woman is healed of blindness by Saint Brigid of Kildare, takes in the world with tears in her eyes, and then makes a request that stops you cold: “Make me blind again.” That ancient story is not just strange, it is diagnostic. It forces us to ask what “seeing” is for, and whether clarity of vision always brings us closer to God, truth, and beauty.

We pick up that thread through the Orthodox Church’s Sunday of the blind man and Father Alexander Groves’ homily on spiritual blindness. Even with perfect eyesight, we can miss what matters most and reduce life to “mere mechanical fact”. The question is not only what is in front of us, but how we attend to it. We talk about distraction, the way modern life trains our focus, and why spiritual life often begins with learning to notice again.

Along the way we draw on Dr Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary to explore how attention shapes what we receive, and we end with a line from Kallistos Ware that reframes miracles entirely: the greatest vision is seeing a holy and humble person. If you have ever met someone whose humility felt like light, you will understand what we mean.

If this stirred something in you, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the conversation. What helps you see the world more truthfully?

Transcript

Saint Brigid Heals A Blind Woman

When Sight Does Not Mean Seeing

Attention Shapes What We Receive

The Greatest Vision Is A Person

Humility Over Big Miracles

Blessing And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Sunny Bunani. Welcome to the Sunny Banana. I see you. Well, my dear friends, listeners, brothers, sisters, I want to tell you a story today. And it's about a lovely saint called Saint Bridget of Kildare, a wonderful Irish saint. A woman who, when passing through a particular town, walked into a blind woman. And this blind woman heard about Saint Bridget and how she was coming through the town and got ready to beg to be healed, to see again. So Bridget kindly obliged, placed her hands on this woman's eyes, and prayed some intercessions. And the woman was healed, and the woman began to see what was around her. And she was taking everything in, and a teardrop was produced and started running down her face until there were many running down her face. And she begged Saint Bridget to make her blind again. Saint Bridget being the kind saint that she was obliged again, placed her hands over her eyes, prayed, and she was blind again. Saint Bridget asked the woman why did she want to go blind again? And all she said was when I couldn't see anything, and in the darkness, I was closer to God. And why I wanted to tell you this story, my sunny banana friends, is that on the weekend on Sunday, it was the Sunday of the blind man in the Orthodox Church, and our priest, Father Alexander Groves, preached a beautiful homily at the end of Divine Liturgy about the blind man that got healed by Jesus in the scriptures, and was a simple message of we can be spiritually blind where, although we see quite perfectly, we see, but we're spiritually blind that we don't actually see beauty, we don't actually see truth. We just see mere mechanical fact sometimes. And it's all in the seeing. I think there's a doctor called there is a doctor, I don't think there's a doctor, there's a doctor called Dr. Ian McGilchrist who wrote a brilliant book called The Master and His Emissary about the the hemispheres of the brains, the brain, sorry, how we the particular attention we pay to something is what we receive, what we ultimately see. And I've spoken about this on the Bunny Banani, the Sunny Banana many times that we are distracted, I think. I am, and I don't see what is truly there. And this blind woman reminds me in the story of St. Bridget that even physically blind people can see God. And I've just dipped out of a book by Calistos Ware, former formerly Timothy Ware, became a bishop in the Orthodox Church, Callistos Ware, and it's about the divine image of us of God in us. And what I want to share with you, and I'll finish with this, in his book, it says, he wrote about a monk asking another monk about the visions or what what's the greatest vision that he's ever seen? And the monk replies, When you see a holy and humble person, this is the most incredible miracle. When you see God abiding in another person, the God of the universe, when you see that, that is the greatest of all visions. And it got me thinking, oh, this fly flies around my head. You know, religion and proof and people think it's all about these big miracles and big happenings and excitement. But this just brings it down to what it is about seeing another human being with the glory of God shining forth through them and in them. And my goodness, do I pray that you, me, and all our loved ones are able to emanate that light to others. In a word, Father Alexander's sermon was about humility. Humility. And I think when you see a humble person or you meet a humble person, I speak for myself here, I see God. I think I have seen a vision of God, I've experienced God in a humble human. Because the human being is the miracle. Our own personhood, the mystery of our personhood. Extraordinary to think about. Sunni Bunani. Thank you for listening to the Sunny Banana. I see you. God bless.