Today the Church remembers Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Had yesterday not been Sunday, it would’ve been the Memorial Saint Margaret of Scotland. The Church’s liturgical calendar contains many observances to remember holy women who lived in the Middles Ages, which spanned the millennium from the fifth through the fifteenth centuries. What is remarkable is the reason these holy women are remembered.
They are remembered and celebrated, almost without exception, for their charitable works on behalf of the poor. Born a princess, Elizabeth of Hungary was the daughter of the king of Hungary. At 14, she married the soon-to-be Landgrave of Thuringia, Louis IV. After six years of what by all accounts was a happy marriage that produced three children, Louis died while enroute to join the Sixth Crusade.
Widowed at 20, Elizabeth was given back her substantial dowry. She used this to build a hospital in Marburg, Germany. In this hospital she served the sick herself.
Elizabeth became an early member of Third Order Franciscans. She is the patroness of Third Order of Franciscans. In her widowhood she took vows of obedience, celibacy, and poverty with her confessor Konrad von Marburg. Like Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Elizabeth died at age 24.
Jesus Christ is a healer of body and soul. Hence, caring for the sick is an important aspect of the Church’s pastoral ministry- one of the corporal works of mercy. In today’s Gospel, the Lord heals a blind beggar as He comes into Jericho to make His way up the mountain to Jerusalem. What is easy to miss is that while the man physically cannot see, he is not spiritually blind.
His spiritual sight is evidenced by the way he hails Jesus. Upon hearing that “Jesus of Nazareth” is passing by, the blind beggar cries out: “Son of David, have pity on me!"1 This is a Messianic greeting, one Jesus didn’t often, if ever hear, during His Galilean ministry or as He made His way to Jerusalem. This blind man can see who He is- Son of David, the Messiah, the Mashiach, God’s Anointed One.
Saint Elizabeth of Hungary feeding the poor
This is confirmed when Jesus tells him, after receiving the blind man’s plea to see, “Have sight: your faith has saved you.”2 This is move like the one Jesus made when the four men lowered their paralyzed friend through the roof of the house where Jesus was performing healings. Upon seeing this man, the Lord tells him his sins are forgiven.
These words cause consternation among some of those in the house I imagine to be lurking in the shadows. Then Jesus says, in order to prove He has the power to forgive sins, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home,” which the man promptly did.3 Jesus gave the man his sight almost as if to say, "This is to show you (and the others) that I am the One you say I am."
In short, the blind beggar sees with an acuity nobody else seems to possess. This is why his humble plea for sight is given. But gaining or regaining his sight doesn’t save him. Through the eyes of faith, this man was able to see who Jesus is. This is the faith that saves. It is a gift from God.
The saints are those who, like the blind beggar, see who Jesus is and live accordingly, which is to live reality. Living this way pretty much without exception looks odd to others. For example, like Margaret of Scotland and Elizabeth of Hungary, not giving up wealth, power, and prestige by abandoning it but putting these in the service of the poor and disenfranchised.
To the world, living this way looks like squandering. But in reality, it shows that they understand this simple sum: Jesus+nothing=everything.
1 Luke 18:37-38.↩
2 Luke 18:42.↩
3 See Luke 5:17-26; Mark 2:1-12.↩
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