When the Lord Jesus was going to Jerusalem, He saw a man who had been born blind, whose name tradition says was Cselidonius. The lowly Lord, stooping down, made clay with spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man, and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. He went, and washed, and came seeing. The miracle was seriously called in question by those malevolent men — much to their own confusion. See the history of this event in the Gospel, for it is sufficiently clear and beautiful. But in all this, fix your eyes on our Lord according to the directions we have before given ; consider, too, how great was the gratitude of the blind man, who so manfully and persistently took the part of our Lord, before the very chiefs and elders of the Jews, and spared them in no word, though he had not yet seen Jesus. Very praiseworthy is the virtue of gratitude and acceptable to God, whilst the vice of ingratitude is detestable. Of this subject S. Bernard thus writes : “Learn to give thanks for every benefit individually. Diligently think on all you receive from Him, so that no gift may be deprived of its rightful acknowledgment, whether it be great, moderate, or small. Lastly, we are bidden to gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost ; that is, that the least favour may not be forgotten. For may not that be said to perish which is given to the ungrateful ? Ingratitude is the enemy to the soul, the evacuation of merits, the dispersion of virtues, the destruction of all that is good. Ingratitude is a burning wind, drying up the springs of piety, the dew of pity, the streams of grace .”1 Thus S. Bernard.
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Footnotes
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Serm, li. sup. Cant. ↩