FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
31 MARCH 2019
When
Saint Paul writes to the Ephesians, he reminds them that they were once
darkness, but now they are light in the Lord.
He is telling them (and us) of the importance of baptism. Like the man born blind in today’s Gospel, we
were washed clean of our sins when we were baptized. As Jesus smeared clay to allow him to see, we
were anointed with Chrism to enable the Holy Spirit to help us see more
clearly. When we live our baptismal
commitments, the light of Christ shines through us to allow every kind of
goodness and righteousness and truth to be present in a world in desperate need
of all three of those virtues.
This
Sunday, we usually invite the Elect (those preparing for Baptism, Confirmation,
and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil) to come forward for the Second
Scrutiny. From ancient times, the Church
has included these good people in this second Scrutiny, which is meant to
uncover, and then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in their
hearts. It delivers them from the power
of sin and Satan, to protect them against temptation, and to give them the
strength of Jesus Christ. However, the
ancient Church did not take into account that Laetare Sunday occurs during
Spring Break. That is where all of our
Elect have gone. We continue to remember
them in our prayer. Like the man born
blind, they have spent this past year on a journey of conversion, opening their
eyes to recognize Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. At the Easter Vigil, they will be illuminated
(the ancient word for being baptized) to share the light of Christ.
Saint Paul
challenges the rest of us who have been illuminated in baptism not to fall back
into darkness. He does not want us to be
like the Pharisees in today’s Gospel.
They choose to remain in darkness, because they refuse to listen to the
witness of a person who has encountered the light of the world and has gone
through a remarkable conversion experience.
He tries to tell them about his encounter with the one who has opened
his eyes. But they do not listen. They choose to continue their belief that the
man was born blind as a punishment for sin, either his or his parents’. They dig in their heels to reinforce their
blindness. They insist that Jesus is a
sinner, because he healed the man on the Sabbath. They attack his parents and threaten to kick them
out of the synagogue for believing their son.
They throw their son out when he persists in telling them the truth
about his experience of Jesus as the Lord.
In their blindness, they persist in being selfish, stubborn, and
arrogant.
It is easy
for us to be critical of the blindness of the Pharisees. We have become light when we were baptized
and received a lit candle as a sign of that illumination. We have read the Prologue of Saint John’s
Gospel and know the truth about Jesus as the Light of the World. Yet, like some members of the Ephesian
community, we have made some bad choices and returned to the darkness. We have been selfish and refused to share a
portion of what God has given us with others, especially with the poor. We have been stubborn when we refuse to let
go of our preconceived notions about the intentions of other people who
disagree with us. We can be arrogant
when we ignore the honest attempts of those who love us to make some changes.
As the
Elect go through the last two Scrutinies before their baptisms, we have a
special Sacrament that has the power to restore us to our baptismal
innocence. We can bring our fruitless
works of darkness to the bright light of Christ’s mercy in the Sacrament of
Penance. Please come to the Parish
Penance Service a week from Tuesday.
Once we encounter the amazingly bright mercy of Christ, his light can
shine more brightly through us. His
light can produce every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. The Prologue to John’s Gospel tells us: “The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it.”
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