Healing the man blind from birth

Jesus replied: Neither this man nor his parents sinned ... but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

Having said this, Jesus spat on the ground, and anointed the man's eyes with a mixture of mud and saliva.

Parallels have been drawn between the act of Jesus in healing the blind man with a paste made of mud and spittle, and the Genesis creation narrative in which God makes man out of the dust of the earth and his own breath (Genesis 2:7).

[2] It also fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah: “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

[5] Cornelius a Lapide in his great commentary writes: The reason why God inflicted blindness on this man was that the miraculous power of Christ should be made manifest in his case, and thus Christ be acknowledged as the true Messiah.

The Glossa Ordinaria gives the mystical meaning, that it was to signify what Christ would do in enlightening mankind in like manner by His grace, and the doctrine of the Gospel.