FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
19 MARCH 2023
Last
Sunday, we met an unnamed Samaritan woman who had come to draw water. At the well, she encountered Jesus, who asked
her for a drink. At first, the woman saw
this Jewish man, an enemy of her people, as a kind man who dared to speak to a
Samaritan woman in the light of the noontime sun. In the course of their conversation, she
acknowledged him as a prophet.
Eventually, he reveals himself as the Christ, the promised Messiah. She leaves her water jar, her most prized
possession, and becomes the first evangelist.
She goes into the town to tell everyone that this promised Messiah could
pour the water of eternal life into them.
Today, we
meet another unnamed person. This Jewish
man has been blind from birth. Jesus is
in Jerusalem with his disciples for the Feast of Tabernacles. He mixes his saliva with mud to smear on the man’s
eyes. After washing in the Pool of
Siloam, the man is able to see.
Then the
drama begins. His neighbors and those
who had known him as a beggar want to know if he is the same person who used to
beg. They also want to know how he
sees. He reports that he did as the man
Jesus had told him. Then he is dragged
to the Pharisees, who are divided, because he had been cured on a Sabbath. He responds that Jesus is a prophet. Then his parents are dragged before the
Pharisees. Because they are afraid of
being thrown out of the synagogue, they throw their son under the bus and tell
them to talk to him. Then the Pharisees
grill him again. He sticks to his
story. He refuses to budge under their
withering questions and insists that Jesus must be from God. After he is thrown out, he sees Jesus for the
first time. Jesus reveals himself as the
Son of Man, the promised Messiah. The
man sees and believes.
The man
born blind reminds us that seeing is believing.
It is no coincidence that he sees on the Feast of Tabernacles. On that feast, priests draw water in golden
pitchers from the Pool of Siloam and pour it over the altar in the brilliantly
lit temple at night. The man born blind
sees that Jesus is the light of the world, the Christ, the promised Messiah,
and believes. He sees and believes in the
face of stiff opposition from the Pharisees, who cannot see and refuse to
believe.
At the
10:00 Mass this Sunday, we will pray the second Scrutiny over the Elect, those
children, teens, and adults who are preparing for the Sacraments of Initiation
at the Easter Vigil. During this last
year, their eyes have slowly and gradually been opened to see the truth about
Jesus Christ. He is the light of the
world. They now see his real presence in
the Sacramental life of the Church. At
the Easter Vigil, they will be baptized, Confirmed, and fed with the Eucharist
for the first time. In today’s Scrutiny,
we pray that they will be freed from whatever spiritual blindness may continue
to limit their spiritual vision as they approach the waters of Baptism.
In praying
over them, we must admit that we are more like the Pharisees than we
think. Even though we have been baptized,
sealed with the Holy Spirit, and fed by the Eucharist, we have not always seen
as clearly as we should. Like Jesse, we
have judged many people by human appearances.
We have failed to see the presence of the Lord in others, especially in
those with whom we disagree. Like the Ephesians,
we have not always lived as children of the light. We have slipped too many times into habits of
darkness. The Lord invites us to do our
own scrutiny. He invites us to bring our
deeds of darkness to the bright light of his incredible mercy in the Sacrament
of Reconciliation. He invites us to
believe that the fire of his mercy can burn away whatever hinders us from
seeing him as the Light of the World, dispelling all darkness. He invites us to renew our seeing and
believing, so that we can better reflect the light of Christ in an increasingly
darkened world.
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