Healing The Blind

Ab Jericho egreditur Dominus, jam de ista terra resurrectione discedens.  Sequuntur eum turbae multae; credunt in eum populi et gentes. Duo caeci sedentes iuxta viam significant de utroque populo quosdam iam cohaerentes per fidem dispensationi temporali secundum quam Christus via est, et desiderantes illuminari; id est, aliquid de verbi aeternitate intelligere: quod transeunte domino impetrare cupiebant, idest, per meritum fidei, qua creditur filius Dei, et natus homo, et passus propter nos: per hanc enim dispensationem quasi transit Iesus, quia actio temporalis est. Oportebat autem ut tantum clamarent donec resistentis sibi turbae strepitum vincerent; id est, tam perseverando animum intenderent orando atque pulsando, quousque consuetudinem desideriorum carnalium, quae tamquam turba obstrepit cognitioni lucem veritatis aeternae videre conanti, vel ipsam hominum carnalium turbam, studia spiritualia impedientem, fortissima intensione superarent. Itaque audiens Jesus qui ait, Petenti dabitur,et quaerens inveniet, et pulsanti aperietur, venientes ad se, ipso scilicet desiderii ardore perevenientes ad id quod desiderant, stans eos tangit, atque illuminat. Non enim sicut illa dispensatio temporalis, ita etiam Verbi aeternitas transit, quae in seipsa manens omnia innovat. Quapropter quia fides incarnantionis temporalis ad aeterna intelligenda nos praeparat, transeunte Jesu admoniti sunt ut illuminarentur, et ab stante illuminati sunt. Temporalia enim transeunt, aeterna stant. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Questiones in Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, Liber Primus, XXVIII Source: Migne PL 35 1328

From Jericho the Lord goes out, 1 already going out from this earth with the resurrection. A great crowd follows him, the people and the gentiles believe in him. The two blind men sitting by the way signify certain folk of both nations already by faith coming to that temporal dispensation, according to which Christ is the way, and seeking to be enlightened, that is, to understand something of the eternity of the Word. This they desired to obtain from the Lord passing by, by the merit of that faith by which He is believed to be the Son of God, to have been born man, and to have suffered for us, for in this dispensation, Jesus, as it were, passes by, for all action is temporal. Also it was fitting that they should cry out until they overcame the din of the crowd that opposed them, that is, that they exert the soul by striving and prayer, and for as long as spiritual zeal was impeded by the habit of carnal desires, which as a crowd cry out against those who try to see the light of eternal truth, and so are like a crowd of carnal men, which with great striving they overcame. Thus Jesus hears, He who said, 'To him who asks it shall be given, and he who seeks shall find, and to him who knocks it shall be opened,' 1 and so they come to Him, approaching by the flame of desire in them to come to what they desire, and standing still He touches them and they see. For not as a temporal arrangement does the eternal Word pass by, that which in itself persisting makes all things new. 3 Whence since faith in the temporal incarnation prepares us for the understanding of eternity, so with Jesus passing by they were stirred that they be enlightened, and by Him standing still they were enlightened. Temporal things are transient, eternal things stand. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Questions on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Book 1, 28 1 Mt 20. 29 2 Mt 7.7 3 Wisdom 7.27