Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Lent

April 1, 1984

John 9: 1-41
1 Sam 16: 1, 6-7, 10-13
Eph 5: 8-14
St. Joseph’s Rest Home, Paterson, N.J.

Today's Laetare Sunday; hence the rose-colored title.  As we all know, there aren't any public Masses in most of the country because of corona virus.  So here's an oldie from my digital strongbox.

“I came into this world to divide it, to make the sightless see and the seeing blind” (John 9:39).

Christ and the Blind Man (Andrey Mironov)

Seeing and not seeing, light and darkness are the themes of today’s readings.

How does the Lord choose a king for Israel?  Not by physical appearances, nor by seniority.  “The Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam 16: 7).  He chooses a baby-faced shepherd boy, and to him he gives his Holy Spirit.

Jesus offers a blind man the chance to see.  St. John loves to play with words.  Jesus heals the man physically, but he also gives the man insight, the spiritual gift of perception.  He looks on this man’s heart, and he sees who Jesus is.  He proclaims his new faith even in the face of those who will not see.

Spiritual insight doesn’t belong to everyone.  The Pharisees, who have seen all of Jesus’ works, sneer at them and at Jesus:  “Are you saying we’re blind!” they ask (John 9:40).  Tho they see, they don’t perceive.  And so they become persecutors rather than disciples, men continuing in their guilt rather than receiving forgiveness.

God’s Spirit has come mightily upon us, too, to give us insight.  “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”  Nor is it enuf to be light, but we must “walk as children of light” (Eph 5:8), proclaiming our faith, sharing our insight with the whole world, like the man whom Jesus healed.  We have put behind us the darkness of sin—or, really, we’re still trying to do that, and that is what Lent challenges us to do.  We have to allow Jesus to lead us into the light of forgiveness and the ways of holiness.

And that means that we have to change our ways of looking at each other, too.  We cannot walk as children of light while condemning our neighbors to live in darkness.   We who cannot see the heart must avoid the temptation to judge our neighbors by outward appearances.  We must want the insight to find the hidden virtues, the Spirit-filled goodness inside one another.  We must give the Spirit a chance to move in the lives of one another.  We must show one another what is pleasing to the Lord.  Then Jesus will be able to judge us as among those who truly see.