Year A: 4th SUNDAY OF LENT

Fr Paul & Fr Stephen, St Agatha’s, Pennant Hills – March 2020

No doubt, we have all had the experience of stumbling in the darkness and knowing what a relief it is when there is light in the darkness. 

No doubt many of us have wondered what it would be like to be blind.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus boldly claims to us, “I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark; he will have light of life.”

Today’s readings remind us of God’s constant call in the Scriptures: calling us out of darkness into his own wonderful light. 

Today’s readings invite us to allow our minds to be enlightened and our hearts to be converted by faith – faith in Jesus Christ.

In our first reading, God corrects Samuel’s misconception by pointing out to him, “God does not see as man sees, because man sees the appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart”.  

In today’s story, God chooses the least likely son of Jesse – David, the youngest who had left home to tend sheep – to be king of his people. 

In spite of his weakness and sin, David proves to be a Shepherd after God’s own heart.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus exposes the Pharisees’ “blindness” and heals and enlightens the “blind” man’s sight.  

It is said: there is none so blind as they who will not see. 

In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees refuse to be taken in by the joy of a young man seeing for the first time. They wouldn’t accept his testimony of the cure, because that would mean they’d have to accept Jesus. 

Those of us who are not blind, might think that the Gospel story has no relevance for us. It is precisely because we can see, that it has relevance for us. The question is: how well do we see? Do we see with the eyes of faith?

The story shows us the blind man who immediately understands the significance of the cure, and the Pharisees who do nothing but judge, and are unaware that they condemn themselves as they judge. 

Many think that faith is a cover up of reality and that what is real is limited to material things, only that which is seen, touched, counted, observed or measured. 

Christian faith is more than a belief in a God higher than us. The person of faith sees whatever other people see, but also perceives with the gift of faith that is out of their reach – faith in God and his infinite love, a God who says to us “all will be well”. 

Unlike the Pharisees who doubt and refuse to recognise and accept Jesus as Lord, the blind man obeys, is healed and acknowledges Jesus as Lord and Messiah. He becomes a disciple of Jesus.  

This blind man truly experiences Jesus as “the light of the world” while the Pharisees in their ignorance, stubbornness and disbelief remain in darkness.  

St John reveals the blind man’s journey of faith.  At first, he sees Jesus as a man, then he recognises him as a prophet and later professes him to be from God and worships him as Lord and decides to follow him.  

John invites us to journey from wanting to see in order to believe to, rather, believing in order to see.  We are invited to take the blind man as our model: he believed and thus he saw! His journey is our journey!

Commenting on this Gospel, Pope Francis observes that, while the blind man gradually draws near to the light, the doctors of the law, on the contrary, sink deeper and deeper into their inner blindness. Locked in their presumption, they believe that they already have the light and therefore they do not open themselves to the truth of Jesus.  

The Pope adds that our lives are sometimes similar to that of the blind man who opened himself to God but, unfortunately, other times they are similar to that of the doctors of the law. From the height of our pride, we judge others and even the Lord.

Saint Paul reminds us that “You were once darkness but now you are a light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” May we heed his appeal and experience the goodness, righteousness and truth that only Jesus can provide.

In what ways do you feel called “out of darkness” to walk in “the light of Christ”? Remember Jesus calls to each one of us: come to me, I call you out of darkness and blindness to share in God’s light, life and love.