There are none so blind as those who will not see. This expression in English is first attributed to John Heywood in 1546, but some thing very similar appears in chapter 5 of the prophet Jeremiah-- so in the 700's BC. The point is obviously old and profound-- our biggest problem in seeing is not in our optic nerves, it is in our choices. So very often we just see what we want to see, not necessarily what is truly present. Thus, we can be blind to reality. That's what is going on in the case of the Pharisees in today's Gospel (Mk 8: 11-13). They ask Jesus for a "sign from heaven" and Jesus refuses to give them one. But haven't they already seen sign after sign? By this point in Mark's Gospel Jesus has fed the 5,000 and the 4,000. He has cured lots and lots of sick people. He has raised the daughter to Jairus, the synagogue official, from the dead. He has cast out demons, including "legion", the demons cast into the herd of 2,0000 swine. He can't go into a town-- even a Greek town like Tyre-- without the crowds finding out that He is there and seeking miracles. Surely the Pharisees knew this. They must even have seen some of the miracles. They undoubtedly talked to Jairus, who was in the official ruling structure of a synagogue, about what took place with respect to his daughter. Yet they still ask for "a sign from heaven." Why? It must be the case that they don't yet believe in the signs Jesus has worked. They have their minds made up about what the messiah is going to do-- how his works are going to filled with power and might and he will be a great and powerful warrior and ruler-- so they can't see the signs for what they are. They want a sign that conforms to their expectations. Maybe they want Jesus to throw Himself off the top of the Temple and be caught by 1,000 angels, who will fall down and worship Him-- the second temptation with which Satan tempts Jesus in the desert. They certainly want something so powerful, so unequivocal, that everyone is forced to believe. They want all doubt removed. Yet Jesus doesn't -- really can't-- work that way. As C.S. Lewis famously said: "Jesus woos. He does not ravish." Jesus wants us to choose to love Him. That means He can't force Himself on us. All the signs He gives need to be sufficiently equivocal that we can accept or reject them. Our free will needs to be left intact-- otherwise what we would give Jesus wouldn't be love. It would be fear or submission. As was the case with the Pharisees, Jesus gives us signs-- signs that we can accept through the eyes of faith, or that we can ignore or reject because the signs don't meet our pre-determined standards. Maybe they're not clear enough. Maybe there is another explanation. Maybe we fall victim to the world's lie that there are no miracles (Thomas Jefferson thought that-- he literally cut out of his Bible all the miracle stories because he believed miracles could not happen. Check out his Bible at his home in Montecello, VA.) We have to be open to belief, open to faith, open to signs. If we aren't-- if we refuse to see-- we won't see the signs that Jesus gives us. And that would be a great tragedy.