Homily for the Week of April 13, 2014

Fourth Sunday of Lent / Laetare Sunday 2014

1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a;  Psalm 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 Ephesians 5:8-14  John 9:1-41 or 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38

         Isaiah Austin, a college basketball player, came to the realization as a teenager that he'd never again see out of his right eye because of a detached retina. He wanted to play basketball but was losing sight. His mother told him that he could make it his excuse, or could make it his story. She said: "You can touch lives or you can be a quitter." He never told the college coach or his teammates that he had a prosthetic eye for two years. He has been an outstanding college athlete and may be a NBA prospect.

         It is difficult if not impossible for us who are gifted with sight to imagine what it must be like to be blind from birth.  The person in today's gospel had never seen blue skies, white snow, green grass, a red rose, or a yellow dandelion.  He  had  never seen a human being, a cat or a dog, a horse or a cow.  He had been born blind without an inkling what seeing is all about.

         But as we carefully consider this blind man's original condition we are able to recognize a similar situation in the world and in ourselves. The man born blind who had come into the world of total darkness may be considered a symbol of the original worldly and human condition. We are told in Genesis that in the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth, the earth was formless and darkness covered it.  It was only when God said Let there be light, that the wasteland began to be filled.

         God's light meant sight. Now there developed all the wonders of creation: sky, water, vegetation, birds, all kinds of animals, and finally male and female humans created in the image and likeness of God.

         We too are born blind in a sense. We enter the world at birth with our eyes shut.  Even though we soon open our eyes for a quick squint, we prefer to keep our eyes shut for long periods of infant sleep. And then finally we take a longer look at the strange shapes we see around us and notice Mama and Daddy.

         This same passage from blindness to sight, from darkness into light is one of the themes of our spiritual life. Jesus who gave sight to the man born blind does the same to each of us. Yet it can happen that we still refuse to see. Tunnel vision can be a serious problem in our daily lives. Although we are not blind, we can act as if we were. Without realizing it, we are claiming our view is right because it is our view rather than choosing it because it is right.

         We would never blame handicapped people for their handicaps, but the people of Jesus’ time did.  We don’t blame the handicapped for their plight. The pharisees assumed that physical or mental disability was the result of a sin committed by the person or by the family.  Jesus points out that there is no connection between sickness and disabilities, and sin.  Not only does Jesus heal the man born blind, he does so on the Sabbath. Yet that did not change them, since they had already made up their mind that they would condemn Jesus.

         Like the woman at the well we read of last weekend, the blind man did not know who Jesus was.  He did not come to a quick understanding of who Jesus was. But he tried to explain Jesus to others. And through this he began to realize who Jesus was. We, also, can be the same.  He become more faithful when we try to explain our faith to others.

         Our Lenten prayer, penance and charity are meant to make us aware that we were once in darkness but now we are light in the Lord. Lent is our call and our challenge to live as children of the light.  Lent is a time for us to be aware of the blind spots in our daily lives. We can easily condition ourselves to see what we want to see or to see what we think we see. Now is the time to take a fresh look at the people we live with, work with, pray with, and play with. This is the time to see things in others we have never seen before, to discover and uncover a hidden beauty, a buried talent t, a disguised characteristic.

         Lent is also a time to take a good look at ourselves, to see ourselves as others see us, to see ourselves as God sees us. This may often mean seeing the good in ourselves which may be asleep in our hearts but ready now to be called forth into the light. It may also seeing anew our bad habits, carelessness, selfishness and stubbornness, a complaining spirit, a reluctance to be thankful for what others do for us. Lent is a time for us to see with 20/20 spiritual vision.  Lent must be a time for us let Jesus take away our blindness.