4th Sunday of Lent
Baikauskas,
Associate Pastor
~ There are many things we associate with blindness. Blind faith. That’s usually a good thing. But then there’s blind ambition – maybe not such a good thing. There’s being blinded by rage – another thing that’s not so good. Blind ignorance, too, isn’t so good. So blindness often means we’re lacking something, or it overwhelms other things.
What do we do when we are blind? We often don’t know exactly what we are doing or what we should be doing. We may do things we would not do if we had sight, or we may do them differently. Our blindness may prevent us from seeing things as they are.
So how do we regain our sight? How do we live in the light? That is the whole point of the readings this weekend. We are all called to live in the light. We are called to be the light of the world. We are all called to see not as people do, but as God does. This is what I preached about on the Second Sunday of Lent, when we heard the readings about the Transfiguration. That is a hard, hard thing to do because we are so often blinded – blinded by rage or pride or greed, by the desire for material things. All these things can blind us to the path God wants us to follow – blind us to the path that calls us to be motivated by love, not fear.
This gospel is especially appropriate for the final weeks for those preparing to enter our Church; it is a reminder that faith grows gradually. The blind man had his sight restored and gradually became more confident in Jesus. By the end of the gospel passage, he is prepared to profess his faith in the one who calls himself the Son of Man.
The Pharisees are outraged and insult the man born blind. The Pharisees have neither listened nor looked. They are blinded by what might happen if they admit the truth. They would lose their power and their influence.
According to the Gospel account, the truth is simple. Jesus gives sight to a man born blind, and the works of God are made visible. The man who was blind puts it this way: “I do believe, Lord.” So, it is not just his physical eyesight that was at stake. His heart was healed, too.
This reading is given to us during Lent because a greater healing takes place at Easter, and during Lent, we prepare for it. Jesus himself suffered the world’s blindness and died – for all the same reasons we see today – pride, selfishness, and envy. But by his death, the world is healed of its hatred and fear, its suffering and evil, and Jesus proves that love is stronger than death.
We often hear the expression “what would Jesus do,” but maybe what is more appropriate is “what does Jesus see?” In this weekend’s first reading, the Lord looks into the heart. That is what we need to do as well. And that’s not easy. Hey, if this stuff were easy, we wouldn’t have to preach about it every week. But we don’t always get it. We try to come up with all sorts of justifications for our anger, our pride, our selfishness, and our fear – and all because we are blind to what is truly important – our love for God and our love for our neighbor – it’s as simple as that.
Who can see and understand? Not you or me if we are like the Pharisees. We would be distracted by whatever is driving us at the moment – our fear, our rage, our selfishness. The Pharisees needed to control others. They needed to be in charge. But if they had looked at the blind man through unclouded eyes, they could have beheld the miracle. With eyes open, so can we. Let us be like the blind man. Let us admit that we may not see very well, and then pray that through God’s grace our eyes are opened, and we can say…
…I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
