Fourth Sunday of Lent  Gospel A

As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 
● There was a common understanding at the time that serious sickness, such as blindness, was due to punishment for sin, either one’s own sins and the sins of one’s parents.
Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, "Go wash  in the Pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed, and came back able to see. 

● As the light of the world Jesus heals the blind man first to physical sight.
● The washing in the Pool of Siloam is seen as a foreshadowing of the Sacrament of Baptism which frees us from the darkness of sin and brings us into the life of God.

His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, "Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?" Some said, "It is," but others said, "No, he just looks like him." He said, "I am." So they said to him, "(So) how were your eyes opened?" He replied, "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went there and washed and was able to see." And they said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I don't know." 

● The man first acknowledges Jesus simply as “the man” who performed a miracle.  Last Sunday’s Gospel Jesus evangelized a Samaritan woman. She began her spiritual journey with the negative comment about Jesus being a Jewish man.

They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made clay  and opened his eyes on a sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see."  So some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath." (But) others said, "How can a sinful man do such signs?" And there was a division among them. 

● Keeping the Sabbath was more important to the leaders than the healing of one born blind.

So they said to the blind man again, "What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet." 

● Notice the progression: first he acknowledges Jesus as a man who performs miracles; now he states that he is a prophet (one who speaks the word of God).

Now the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight. They asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?" His parents answered and said, "We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for him self." His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Messiah, he would be expelled from the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; question him." 

● Are there times we keep silent or try to avoid speaking the truth for fear of what others may say or do?

So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give God the praise!  We know that this man is a sinner." He replied, "If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see." So they said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"  He answered them, "I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?" They ridiculed him and said, "You are that man's disciple; we are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from." The man answered and said to them, "This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.  It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything." They answered and said to him, "You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?" Then they threw him out. 

● He next testifies that Jesus was one come from God with miraculous powers.
● Notice the process: The blind man’s sight is restored, but the leaders become progressively more blind to the truth of who Jesus truly is. The man’s journey began as a blind man in darkness, but leads him to a man of great spiritual insight.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered and said, "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he." He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him. 

● As the light of the world, Jesus enlightens the man so that he sees spiritually enough to profess belief in him as the Messiah.  The journey of faith is complete. He has been evangelized.

Then Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not also blind, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, 'We see,' so your sin remains.”

● The leaders claimed they see, but in reality they were spiritually blind to the truth of who Jesus was. In fact, they refuse to see. Is that true of us sometimes?

● What have I learned from this passage? How does Jesus desire to bring me into a new level of understanding: leading me from darkness into a deeper understanding in faith concerning who he is?

● How do our unrepentant sins keep us in darkness? Does Jesus want to give us the same spiritual insight as he gave the man born blind?  What holds us back?
● What has our spiritual journey been like?

Over the centuries, the human race has experienced pandemic disasters, human-initiated genocides and horrific natural catastrophes. God does not cause these. Nor does God take pleasure in them. However, in each God allows us to recognize that we are helpless without him. 

As a people we have turned away from God in so many ways. We have chosen to defile the commands of the Lord for our own self-interest. Many have chosen a secular and individualistic approach to morals and life, implicitly and explicitly saying they don't need God in their life. The human being is the center of life and can do all things, even create or manipulate life. 

How far will we go before recognizing our total dependence upon God? When we will begin to fall on  our knees and express ourselves like the prophet Daniel. "We have sinned, been wicked and done evil; we have rebelled and turned from your commandments and your laws. We have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name." (Daniel 9:5-6)

This is a time of prayer before the Lord for his all-powerful intervention to deliver us from the present and future afflictions. Let the experts find cures. We will pray.

"Lent is a journey of hope. Indeed, this prospect is immediately evident if we consider that Lent was instituted in the Church as a time of preparation for Easter and that, therefore, the whole meaning of this 40-day period is illuminated by the Paschal Mystery toward which it is directed. We can imagine the Risen Lord who calls us to come out of our darkness, and so we set ourselves on the path toward the One who is Light. Lent is a journey toward the Risen Jesus; it is a period of repentance, also of mortification, not as an end in itself, but rather aimed at enabling ourselves to rise with Christ, to renew our baptismal identity, that is, to be born anew 'of the spirit', by the love of God (cf. Jn 3:3-6). This is why Lent is, by nature, a time of hope." (Pope Francis)

How easy is it to forget why we started the journey of Lent in the first place. Our focus is to be better able to enter into the celebration of the Paschal Mystery (the death and resurrection of Jesus).  To put away sin which brings death, so as to share more deeply in the life of Jesus. To prepare ourselves to renew our Baptismal promises, acknowledging God as Our Father, Jesus as our Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit as the One who sanctifies and anoints us. As a time of hope we fix our sights on the newness that is ours in God. 

"Lent is the time to start breathing again. It is the time to open our hearts to the breath of the One capable of turning our dust into humanity. It is not the time to rend our garments before the evil all around us, but instead to make room in our life for all the good we are able to do. It is a time to set aside everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us. Lent is a time of compassion." Pope Francis

What is this life we need to breathe in afresh? Is it not the life that comes from God, which is love. And if we breathe in love, what is it that we are to exhale? Is it not the effects of sin within us? The breathe of God renews and transforms us by helping us deal with the disease of sin within us. 

We are becoming more aware of the effects of the corona virus that is ravaging the world. We should become more aware of the corona virus of sin that has been devastating us from the beginning of creation. The former virus may cause physical death. But the later virus will cause eternal death. Lent is a time of grace to address the cause of this eternal death, namely sin, in our lives.

"Many people think that they are achieving great things in external  works such as fasting, going barefoot and other such practices which are called penances. But true penance, and the best kind of penance, is that whereby we can improve ourselves greatly and in the highest measure, and this consists in turning entirely away from all that is not God, or of God in ourselves and in all creatures, and in turning fully and completely towards our beloved God in an unshakable love so that our devotions and desire for him become great."  - Meister Eckhart 

As we continue in this the second week of Lent, do we see any changes in ourselves in regards to turning away from what is not of God to turning more fully towards pleasing the Lord in all things? If so, continue in this direction. If not, renew your commitment to confront areas of sin, so that we can experience the presence of God in a fuller way. For confronting sin is the real focus of Lent. For when we confront sin, we, through the grace and power of Jesus' death and resurrection, are confronting Satan. 

Imagine a rusty bolt on a door that has sagged on its hinges. For years, that bolt has never been shot efficiently, except by hammering it or by lifting the door a little and wriggling it home with effort. But let a skilled worker unscrew that old bolt, rub it with emery paper, bathe it in paraffin, polish it with fine sand, oil it generously and reset it with nicety. That bolt will now move with the touch of a finger, with the pressure of a feather. You could almost blow it open and shut. That is what Lent is all about; resetting the bolts on the doors of our hearts.

What causes this bolt to perform inefficiently is improper care. What causes us to live inefficiently in our relationship with God is sin. Sin creates a callousness within us. It creates a false sense of well being. Lent is our annual time to address sin in our lives, from the very root of sin. 

Notice the worker doesn't just continue the same process as before. Instead, he goes to the heart of the problem. We can cover over our sins or we can cleanse our minds and bodies and embrace the will of God in a given area.

"The real purpose of Lent is finding what God wants of our lives and sacrificing our pleasure, our ideas, our plans, our goals, our egos, for God's will and way." (Morton Kelsey)

We are sons and daughters of God. We belong to him by virtue of creation, redemption and sanctification. Our true happiness lies in be in union with him now, so that we can be in  union with him eternally. If love involves doing what pleases the other for the other's sake, then seeking the will of God for us and acting on it is the greatest love.

Jesus modeled this for us. In his humanity he sought the Father's will in all things, to the embracing of the cross for our salvation. We are called to imitate Jesus by seeking the will of the Father in all things.  Like Jesus we will struggle. "Father, take away this cup; not my will but yours be done."  Pray for the grace to embrace God's will in each present moment.