4th Sunday of Lent

March 15, 2026

God is our light in the darkness; where are we willfully blind?

John 9:1-41

As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or parents, that he was born blind?” 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. 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.” 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. 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. ”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 himself.” 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.” 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. 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. 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.’ And so your sin remains.”

REFLECTIONS ON THE GOSPEL

Introduction by John W. Yates II, Preaching Today Issue #46, www.PreachingToday.com, A resource of Christianity Today International

A few years ago, I realized I was going blind. Now, long before my sight began to be radically diminished, a medical doctor told me there was a good chance it would happen. Just learning about the possibility of blindness was actually worse than when my sight began to dim quickly about four years ago. Well, thanks to the goodness and the healing power of God, to modern medicine, and to two unknown persons whose premature death made it possible for me to receive corneal transplants, today I can see. My sight is getting better and better still, three years after the original surgery. All this has provided me ample opportunity to think carefully about sickness and health, and particularly about blindness. Therefore, I’m particularly interested in this story from John, chapter 9, about the man born blind. It’s one of the most interesting stories in the New Testament. This fellow who could see nothing is described by John, as you read the whole of chapter 9 of his gospel, as one of the most colorful characters of all of the New Testament, even though he lived in darkness. Today we see what we can learn about Christ’;s attitude toward disease and toward undeserved suffering. In the classroom of one of my younger daughters, there is a bright and handsome little boy who was born without any arms. How would Jesus approach such a situation? That’;s really the question that’s behind this story of the man born blind. First, I want you to notice two or three facts about this man. Although we never know his name, he apparently was someone known to the people of the community in Jerusalem. He didn’t approach Jesus. Nobody brought him to Jesus. He didn’t ask to be healed. All of his life he had lived in darkness. He was blind from birth, and he had no idea what it meant to see. His physical condition was every bit as hopeless as if he had no eyes, no hands, no arms at all. He was a beggar. He was supported by the generosity of other people. As one reads the entire story, it is evident that the man was intelligent. He was able, he was a logical thinker, and he was a skilled communicator, but he really had no hope of ever seeing. Two things happened to him in the course of this chapter. He was healed physically, and then, after going through an incredible gauntlet of challenges, he was healed spiritually as well. The Lord was in a hurry that day, as best we can tell. Just prior to this event, in the 8th chapter of John, the Lord had been involved in a major, serious confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus had made bold claims about himself and about his relationship with his Father in Heaven. He had claimed to be one with the Father. He had claimed to be greater than Abraham. He had said that these religious leaders were sons of the Devil. And he made that day his boldest claim to divinity. The Pharisees had begun to run and pick up stones so they could stone the man to death for blasphemy, and he had escaped from them somehow by slipping away through the crowd. So Jesus wasn’t exactly relaxed. He wasn’t exactly available for a lot of heavy counseling at that particular moment as he was going out the temple gate. But apparently it was in this context that this fellow, who customarily sat by one of the exits of the Jewish temple, was approached by Jesus. Jesus approached the man. He didn’t engage him in prolonged discussion. He did not ask him questions as far as we know. He did not tell the man to follow him and become his disciple. He did not discuss the man’s past or his sins. He didn’t tell him, like Nicodemus, that he had to be born again. All of this came later on in his relationship. He simply made a little poultice out of damp clay, following an ancient custom. He applied it to the man’s eyes and gave him an assignment. There was something about his words or the manner of the Lord that convinced this beggar to do what Jesus told him to do. Jesus moved on without ever waiting to see the outcome. Later on, Jesus sought this man out and talked to him about who he was, and the man worshiped Jesus and became a convinced disciple of Christ. This is the only instance in the whole Bible where a person who was born blind was cured. The disciples couldn’t bear to let this opportunity slip away. They were just like you and I would have been. All their lives they had wondered about this age-old problem of pain. If God is a good God, and all powerful, why on earth would God allow a person to be struck down with such a problem? It was easy enough to understand if this person had been some despicable person. He would deserve to be punished. But this poor fellow was totally blind from the very beginning. When he came out of the womb, he couldn’t see. He had lived in total darkness. And so the disciples raised this question to their teacher. How did Jesus respond? Jesus could have explained that, although God is perfectly good and all-powerful, this world in which we live, which he made, has been corrupted by man’s sin. It’s a fallen, bent, crooked, broken place in which there are many selfish and harmful people, and in which there are millions of types of dangerous bacteria and viruses. All these forces are at work to make this a dangerous environment in which all people, evil or wonderful, are equally at risk, and no one is safe from danger. He himself, God’s own Son, was soon to be murdered. “All of us look to heaven as the only perfect environment.” Jesus could have said that. Or he could have explained that, yes, there are some situations in which the sin of the parent brings pain or grief or sickness on a child. We certainly see this in the case of children of alcoholics, or in instances where children suffer blindness or worse because of a parent infected with a venereal disease. Jesus could have gone into that. He could have explained that all suffering is not alike. He could have said, “Well, there are no pat answers. Here are several different things for you to think about.” He could have said, “Suffering has a place in God’s plan—in the lives of certain people and certain situations.” Jesus missed an opportunity. He could have preached an unbelievably good sermon that would have gone down in history as the most penetrating analysis of the problem of pain ever given. He was the Son of God. He knew the answers to this problem. So much of our own inner pain and philosophical bewilderment could have been once and for all settled if Jesus had just preached that sermon that his disciples had begged him to preach. Why did my father die as a young man? Why did this young mother and child die so cruelly in an automobile accident? Why that avalanche? Why that earthquake? Why that little boy without any arms? Why Auschwitz? Why Afghanistan? Why AIDS? He could have explained all of that, but he didn’t. He didn’t. And as a result, we still have only an imperfect, incomplete understanding of the answers to the problem of pain. Often, we still find ourselves perplexed and grief-stricken in the midst of tragedies that befall all people everywhere. What did Jesus do in this situation? He said: The only thing I’m going to tell you right now is that this situation is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for God to be glorified. It’s an opportunity to show what God can do. This is an important point: When you face tragedy, whether it’s sickness or natural disaster or whatever, you might be able to discern reasons why this is happening, and you may be able to lay the blame on someone or something. You may even be able somehow to see the hand of God in it. You may not, and it may seem God is not answering you when you pray. Why? It just may be the only answer you will get is this: “This has happened; don’t dwell on why. Rather, it has happened, and having happened, we now have an opportunity to see God at work.” That really is a much better answer. What a shame that Jesus didn’t give us an answer to our questions about the problem of pain. All he said was: Here’s an opportunity to see what God can do. Sickness and suffering are opportunities for us to show the love and compassion of God. I thought about that this week, and here’s what I thought: Sickness and people who are suffering around us provide us with an opportunity to show the love and compassion of God by caring for them and praying for them and working for their healing. It may be that God is calling you to medicine. It may be that God is calling you to work for the relief of suffering in areas stricken by famine. Perhaps God would have you become a part of our sick- and hospital-visitation ministry. It may be that God is calling you to a ministry of healing and relief for the sick and suffering. Affliction, sorrow, pain, loss, disappointment—they give us opportunity to demonstrate the love of God to people who are suffering. Many people, like this blind man in John 9, are too overcome by their suffering to be open to giving their lives to Christ. But when they are loved and cared for, when they sense the compassion of Christ through our deeds of mercy, they may, like this blind man, eventually come to Christ and find spiritual healing as well as physical healing. When tragedy comes, we always want to focus on the why. Jesus said it happens for a purpose, and that purpose is that the power and love and greatness of God might be seen more deeply through this.. You may have a tragedy in your life one day. Will you see it as disaster, a terrible defeat, or will you see it as an opportunity—as awful and as painful as it might be—an opportunity for God to do new things? Will you look backward, or will you look forward?

LIving Space

On this fourth Sunday in Lent, we celebrate the Mass for the second of the three “Scrutinies”. As described in last Sunday’s commentary, the Scrutinies are special rites that help prepare the Elect (also called ‘catechumens’, i.e. those participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) to enter the Catholic Church. Today’s readings from Year A may also be used in Years B and C when there are catechumens present who will be baptised at Easter. When catechumens are present, they are presented to the gathered community which they will soon be joining as full members, and from which they will receive acceptance and support. After the homily, and before the Creed, they will leave the gathered community, because they are not yet full members of the faith community. It is in this context that we have the marvellous story from John’s gospel about the cure of a man born blind. The hero of the story is a man who was blind from his birth.  He had never been able to see.  When he is cured, he will be able to see Jesus as his Lord, something the religious leaders were unable to do. The disciples ask Jesus, “Why was he born blind? Was it because of his own sins or the sins of his parents?” There was, in people’s minds at that time, a close link between sin and a chronic sickness or disability – one was a punishment for the other.  We remember when the paralysed man was let down through the roof at the feet of Jesus seeking to be healed of his disability, surprisingly, Jesus’ first words to him were, “Your sins are forgiven.” Here, however, Jesus changes the direction of their question. His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins.  He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him. He will be the focus of one of the seven great signs which Jesus is seen to perform in this gospel. A life of light: The story keeps emphasizing that the man was blind from birth. To heal him then means the beginning of a completely new life, a life where he can see. He will enter a new world of brightness.  Not to know Jesus is to live in blindness and darkness. In fact, this story is an illustration of Jesus’ statement: “I am the light of the world”. In the beginning of the story, the man is blind – he cannot see; he is a beggar – he has nothing; he is an outsider – no one accepts him. His affliction indicates that he is a sinner or the son of a sinner and as such, a person to be avoided. In the end, when he is able to see, he becomes a disciple of Jesus. In terms of the Gospel, it is the logical and inevitable outcome. Once we really see Jesus, we are hooked. In the beginning he was blind, he was in darkness.  In the end he is in the light, because Jesus is the Light of the world. Jesus heals the man’s eyes. In doing so he uses mud and saliva. At that time, people believed that saliva could heal and, to some degree they were right. Here Jesus, by using mud, also helps us to remember God used mud to create Adam, the first man. Here too, there is a new creation. Jesus is making a new man. St. Paul calls the baptised Christian a “new person”. Then Jesus tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. This is symbolic of his baptism. After his healing, the man’s friends and his neighbours discuss his identity – is it really him?  The beggar was blind, and this man can see. Because he has changed, some people cannot recognise him. When we are baptised, when we become committed followers of Christ, we too should change. Maybe some people will say, “You are not like the way you were before! You are not the same person since your conversion and baptism.” In fact, that is what they should be able to say. Because they are not satisfied, neighbours bring the blind man to see the Pharisees. The Pharisees are the source of orthodox thinking and fidelity to the Law. Moreover, Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath, and the methods he used were a violation of the letter of the Law. The conundrum for the Pharisees was that if Jesus truly were from God, he would not be breaking the law. On the other hand, if he was a sinner, how could he do these things? Sinners cannot do the work of God. This led to division among the Pharisees, because they refused to follow out their own logic. The Pharisees then interrogate the blind man. He keeps telling them just what Jesus had done for him. For him the answer is quite simple: Jesus is a prophet. Sabbath or no Sabbath, his actions are clearly from God. “How could a man who is a sinner do things like this?” But the Pharisees cannot accept his argument. If they accept, then they have to accept Jesus and his teaching also. So they do not even want to accept that the man was ever blind!

Avoiding trouble
Now, they turn their questions to the man’s parents. The parents know very well that their son was born blind, but they are afraid to say so. They know that now if anyone says Jesus is the Messiah, they will be expelled from the synagogue. They will no longer be part of the community. Many Jewish Christians, known to the readers of this gospel, would have had this experience. Later on, thousands of Christians would have a similar experience, ostracised for their faith in Christ. Unfortunately, the man’s parents were prepared to sacrifice their integrity rather than suffer such a punishment. So the parents push the argument back to the son: he is an adult; he is well able to answer for himself. The Pharisees again ask the man to tell the truth. “We know that Jesus is a sinner. He cannot do these things.” 

The healed man stands his ground
I don’t know if he is a sinner. I do know I was blind and now I can see. For the umpteenth time they ask, “What did he do?”  Exasperated, the man replies: “I told you already. But you will not listen.” The man is also more daring now, not afraid, and he begins to mock the Pharisees: Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples too? This makes the Pharisees angry and they begin to abuse him. “You are his disciple. We are Moses’ disciples. No one knows where that fellow [Jesus] came from.” In a sense, that is perfectly true because the Word was with God from the very beginning. On the other hand, Jesus’ origins are perfectly obvious as the cured man is well aware: Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from? God does not listen to sinners.   God listens to those who respect him and do his will. Never before was it heard that anyone had cured a man born blind. If Jesus is not from God, he could not do this. The Pharisees, now very angry, resort to the traditional belief – sickness as punishment for sin. “You were born and raised in sin. You want to teach us?” And they expelled him from the synagogue.  This was indeed the experience of many Jews who became Christians. And the experience of many others later on, expelled by their families, relatives and society. Jesus hears that the man has been expelled. He goes in search of him and finds him. Jesus asks him: Do you believe in the Son of Man, that is, the Messiah? And, the man replies, “Tell me who he is and I will believe in him.” He does not recognise the man Jesus, for this is the first time he has seen him with his new vision since his healing. Says Jesus, “You have seen him. He is talking with you now.” “I believe, Lord,” the man replies, and falls down on his knees before Jesus. He is now a disciple. A disciple is someone who knows and can see Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. I came to this world so that the blind could see and those who see become blind. The Pharisees ask, “Do you mean we are blind, too?” and Jesus tells them, If you were really blind [like the man], you would not have sin; but because you say, ‘We can see’, you are guilty. Jesus turns around their conviction that a blind man is a sinner. Rather, says Jesus, it is those who think they can see when they cannot who are the guilty ones. There are two kinds of people:

• like the blind man, they accept Jesus’ teaching and are the sheep of his flock;

• like the Pharisees, who refuse to believe, they do not belong to Jesus.

Those who sin, those who refuse to listen, those who are proud, are the really blind people (and immediately following this passage, John’s gospel will speak about Jesus as the Good Shepherd). The Pharisees, who thought they could see, were the real sinners. And the man born blind who accepts Jesus can really see. This gospel has a clear relation to Baptism. We read it today for the catechumens who are preparing to be baptised and enter the Christian community. They have begun to see Jesus, to recognise him and to follow him. But the Gospel is also for us already baptised.  We also need to see Jesus and the Gospel more clearly. The words of Paul in the Second Reading are very appropriate: You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth. On the one hand, Paul is telling us that, like the man in the Gospel who represents all of us, we were also blind and stumbling in darkness. But now we live in the light of the Gospel and the New Testament. And that light is seen in the way we behave, in the way we relate with other people in “complete goodness and right living and truth”. Our lives are to have a transparency where there is no darkness, no hidden behaviour which we would be ashamed to reveal to others. Let us all pray for this.

LENTEN POETRY COMPANION WEEK 4: AN INVITATION TO LIBERATION

MONDAY — Tomorrow’s Children by Rubem Alves
What is hope?
It is a presentiment that imagination is more real
and reality less real than it looks.
It is a hunch
that the overwhelming brutality of facts
that oppress and repress is not the last word.
It is a suspicion
that reality is more complex
than realism wants us to believe
and that the frontiers of the possible
are not determined by the limits of the actual
and that in a miraculous and unexpected way
life is preparing the creative events
which will open the way to freedom and resurrection....
The two, suffering and hope, live from each other.
Suffering without hope
produces resentment and despair,
hope without suffering
creates illusions, naivete, and drunkenness....
Let us plant dates
even though those who plant them will never eat them.
We must live by the love of what we will never see.
This is the secret discipline.
It is a refusal to let the creative act
be dissolved in immediate sense experience
and a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren.
Such disciplined love
is what has given prophets, revolutionaries and saints
the courage to die for the future they envisaged.
They make their own bodies
the seed of their highest hope.

Source: “Tomorrow’s Children” from Hijos de Maoana, by Rubem Alves. Salamanca, Spain: Ediciones Sigueme, 1976.

TUESDAY — A Sick Person’s Complaint by Edward Caswall
Hail holy Sacrament,
The worlds great Wonderment,
Mysterious Banquet, much more rare
Then Manna, or the Angels fare;
Each crum, though sinners on thee feed,
Doth Cleopatra’s Perl exceed.
Oh how my Soul doth hunger, thirst and pine
After these Cates so precious, so divine!
She need not bring her Stool
As some unbidden Fool;
The Master of this Heavenly Feast
Invites and wooes her for his Guest:
Though Deaf and Lame, Forlorn and Blind,
Yet welcome here she’s sure to find,
So that she bring a Vestment for the day,
And her old tatter’d Rags throw quite away.
This is Bethsaida’s Pool
That can both cleanse and cool
Poor leprous and diseased souls,
An Angel here keeps and controls,
Descending gently from the Heavens above
To stir the waters; May He also move
My mind, and rocky heart so strike and rend,
That tears may thence gush out with them to blend.

Source: “A Sick Person’s Complaint” from Hymns and Poems, Original and Translated by Edward Caswall. London: Burns, Oates & Co., 1873.

WEDNESDAY — The Garments of God by Jessica Powers
God sits on a chair of darkness in my soul.
He is God alone, supreme in His majesty.
I sit at his feet, a child in the dark beside Him;
my joy is aware of His glance and my sorrow is tempted
to nest on the thought that His face is turned from me.
He is clothed in the robes of His mercy, voluminous
garments
not velvet or silk and affable to the touch,
but fabric strong for a frantic hand to clutch,
and I hold to it fast with the fingers of my will.
Here is my cry of faith, my deep avowal
to the Divinity that I am dust.
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Here is the loud profession of my trust.
I will not go abroad
to the hills of speech or the hinterlands of music
for a crier to walk in my soul where all is still.
I have this potent prayer through good or ill:
here in the dark I clutch the garments of God.

THURSDAY — Am I to Lose You? by Louisa Sarah Bevington
‘Am I to lose you now?’ The words were light;
You spoke them, hardly seeking a reply,
That day I bid you quietly ‘Good-bye,’
And sought to hide my soul away from sight.
The question echoes, dear, through many a night, —
My question, not your own – most wistfully;
‘Am I to lose him?’ – asked my heart of me;
‘Am I to lose him now, and lose him quite?’
And only you can tell me. Do you care
That sometimes we in quietness should stand
As fellow-solitudes, hand firm in hand,
And thought with thought and hope with hope compare?
What is your answer? Mine must ever be,
‘I greatly need your friendship: leave it me.’

Source: “Am I to Lose You?” from Poems, Lyrics and Sonnets, by L.S. Bevington. London: Elliot Stock, 1882.

FRIDAY — Now I Become Myself by May Sarton (1912-1995)
Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before—“
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted so by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I love
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

Source: “Now I Become Myself” from Collected Poems 1930-1993, by May Sarton. New York: Norton, 1993.

SATURDAY — A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our heats, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead
Act,- act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead.
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
a forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us then be up and doing,
with a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Source: “A Psalm of Life” from The Complete Poetical Works of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1893.

PREPARATION FOR THE SESSION

Presence of God: Jesus, As I come to you today, fill my heart, my whole being, with the wonder of your sacred presence. Help me to become more aware of your presence in my life, and more receptive to that presence. I desire to love you as you love me. May nothing ever separate me from you. ( 1-2 minutes of silence)

Freedom: Jesus, Grant me the grace to have freedom of spirit. Keep me from being bound by desires and actions that are not good for me or others. Cleanse my heart and soul that I may live joyously in your love. ( 1-2 minutes of silence)

Consciousness: Where am I with God? With others in my life? What am I grateful for? Is there something I am sorry for, words or actions that have hurt others, and which I now regret? I take a moment to ask forgiveness of God and of those whom I have hurt. God, I give you thanks for your constant love and care for me. Keep me always aware of your presence in my life. (2-3 minutes of silence)

OPENING PRAYER

Lord, I know that I am often blind. I do not see others as you see them. Help me to see the beauty and the goodness in those around me, recognizing that you made them and love them as you do me. I also know that I am often caught up in the bitterness of failed expectations, or rejection or personal weakness. Help me to work though that bitterness and see my negative experiences as a change for you to work miracles of growth within me. Help me to remember who is in charge here.

COMPANIONS FOR THE JOURNEY
From “Sermons and reflections shared by Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Alexandria, VA”
Katie was a classmate of mine in elementary school. We were in many of the same classes for kindergarten through 6th grade. I remember her younger brother well. He played trombone in the band, he had a whacky sense of humor, he played baseball. I remember her brother well, but I don’t remember much about Katie even though she was in my class for seven years. In fact, the only thing I really remember about Katie is that she was blind. I and others identified Katie by her disability. She was the “blind girl” at Dawes School .And sadly that’s all we knew. At least we knew her name. “The blind man” in today’s gospel didn’t even have that recognition. It seems that no one knows his name. No one really pays much attention to him. After his sight is restored by Jesus, his neighbors say, “Is that the man who used to sit and beg?” They really aren’t  quite sure because no one knows him as a person. They identify him only by his blindness. Once he is no longer blind and begging, they don’t recognize him! There are many stories of healing in the Bible. Jesus heals the blind, the deaf, the lame, those with chronic illness, those who are mentally ill, and others. These stories reveal to me a God of compassion, of strength, of miraculous power. But these healing stories are not comforting for everyone. In fact, these stories can be difficult for those who have disabilities. (And that’s a lot of people – nearly one in 5 in the United States according to the most recent census.) The healing stories of Jesus can be difficult because sometimes the impression is given that those with disabilities are not yet whole people, that they need to be fixed. The healing stories of Jesus can be difficult because sometimes the stories talk about healing as a result of the faith of the one who is healed, giving the impression that the person who still has a disability somehow does not have enough faith. The healing stories of Jesus can be difficult because sometimes a relationship is made between illness and sin, giving the impression that a person’s sinfulness causes the illness. We need to debunk all of those false beliefs. A disability does not need to be fixed to make a person whole. A disability is not the result of a lack of faith. A disability is not a punishment from God for sin. And that is why John chapter 9 is claimed as such an important text for those within the disability community. When the disciples try to link sin with disability, Jesus won’t allow it. He clearly says that it is not the man’s sin or the sin of his parents which made him blind. There is also no association between faith and healing in this story. There is no act of faith on the man’s part. He does not ask for healing. He does not touch Jesus’ cloak like the woman who is hemorrhaging. He does not ask to be carried into healing pool like the paralyzed man at Bethesda. This man receives healing entirely through grace. No faith necessary. Furthermore, unlike how those with disabilities are sometimes treated in life as well as in the Bible, this story is helpful because ​the man who is blind is shown to be an individual, an intelligent individual with a winsome personality. He is thoughtful. He speaks for himself. He’s funny! I love this line when he’s asked what happened and responds,​​​ “Why do you want me to tell the story to you again?” Can’t you see the grin on his face? Do you also want to become his disciples? But what I think is perhaps the most remarkable thing about this healing story. Aside from the fact that it shows the man as an individual, that it disabuses the notion of disability as a punishment for sin, that it doesn’t equate healing with faith. The most remarkable thing about this healing story is that Jesus teaches that it isn’t the man who has been blind since birth who needs healing. It isn’t he who is lacking in real sight. It is the others who need healing. Those who are blind to God’s work in the world are the ones who need new vision. Lent is often focused on changing something in our lives. We’ve talked about changes in circumstances. We’ve talked about a change in heart. We’ve talked about a change in habits. Today we’re talking about a change in sight, and we’re not talking about a change in sight for those who already wear glasses, we’re talking about corrective lenses for those of us who think we already have 20/20 vision. In her book For the Benefit of those who See, a wonderful collection of stories about her work with those who are visually impaired in Tibet, Rosemary Mahoney says that “seeing is not a function of the eyes alone.“ “It is a function of the mind at least as much as the eyes,” she says. “We only see what we look at.” So let’s think again about what it means to have 20/20 vision. 20/20 vision looks at the world and can see God’s hand in and through it all. 20/20 vision notices that the sacred is present outside of church or synagogue and in everyday life. 20/20 vision sees the blind man begging at the side of the road and stops to chat and find out his name. 20/20 vision observes tragedy around the world – a mudslide in Washington, a plane crash somewhere over the ocean, and does not blame the victims. 20/20 vision pays attention to inequalities due to race or socioeconomic class or gender and does not dismiss them. 20/20 vision looks, notices, sees, observes, pays attention to the world around them. and ironically, perhaps, the blind man has done this better than anyone else. May our eyes be opened to see.

LIVING THE GOOD NEWS

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion? Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions which follow.

Reflection Questions
What is the difference between physical sight and vision?

John is not telling us that one man was born blind and Jesus cured him, but that we humans are "blind from birth and we all need healing.
What are my limitations, blind spots, or false notions of God?
What leads us to spiritual blindness? (self-absorption, righteousness, unwillingness to change and grow, for example)
When have I preferred shadows, darkness and illusion in my life?
What have been the enlightening moments in my life?

Do we see, really see, the needs around us, or are we willfully blind?

How do we deal with those who are willfully blind?

Why are we born the way we are?
Do we believe our bad luck is the result of God’s punishment, or that our good luck is the result of God’s pleasure?

What kind of courage do we need in this day and age to witness to Jesus?

How has your perception of Jesus changed in the course of your own spiritual journey?

Recall some beliefs which were once a part of your life, but which you no longer consider to be true.

Have difficult times in your life affected your faith?
In what way?

If Jesus were to ask me “What is it that you want me to do for you,” what would you answer?

What have been my “blind spots?”
Where has God’s grace figured in my enlightenment?
How has this enlightenment affected my behavior?

In short, we must do more than “believe.” We must act on our beliefs. What will my action be this week?
Where will my light shine this week?

Has anyone ever tried to make me conform to beliefs that were popular and accepted as correct, but which contradicted my own?
Have I ever been in a position of power or authority where I tried to coerce others into voicing my opinions or beliefs?
Have I ever been intimidated by a person who had power to harm me in some way?

Is there anything in my life right now that keeps me from seeing what God wants me to see?

Has there even been someone in my life who shed light on my actions, my goals, my relationships? How did I respond?

Have I ever made judgments about someone based on how they looked or acted, or based on commonly held beliefs about such a person?
Has anyone ever judged me in this way?

John is not telling us that one man was born blind and Jesus cured him, but that we humans are "blind from birth and we all need healing.
What is the difference between physical sight and vision?

What are my limitations, blind spots false notions of God? What leads us to spiritual blindness? (self-absorption, righteousness, unwillingness to change and grow, for example)

When have I preferred shadows, darkness and illusion in my life? What have been the enlightening moments in my life?

Why are we born the way we are? Do we believe our bad luck is the result of God’s punishment, or that our good luck is the result of God’s pleasure?

What kind of courage do we need in this day and age to witness to Jesus?

Do we see, really see, the needs around us, or are we willfully blind? How do we deal with those who are willfully blind? Can we?

How has your perception of Jesus changed in the course of your own spiritual journey?

Recall some beliefs which were once a part of your life, but which you no longer consider to be true.

Have difficult times in your life affected your faith? In what way?

CLOSING PRAYER

Don’t forget to provide some prayer time at the beginning and at the end of the session (or both), allowing time to offer prayers for anyone you wish to pray for.

( Adapted from a homily by Father William Bausch in 60 More Seasonal Homilies)

A Prayer for seeing
Some of us are blind to our own faults
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some us always focus on the weakness of others
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some never acknowledge life’s blessings
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some are blinded by unbridled desires for pleasure, money, and self-promotion, and fail to notice the needs of others, or the presence of the poor
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some have eyes darkened by prejudice and hatred
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some re blinded by ambition, and step all over others’ feelings
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some are blinded by pride which makes them think they are the center of the universe
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some wallow in their own self-pity and are turned in on their own sins and never notice God’s mercy
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Some don’t have their prayers answered and need to sense something deeper happening in the crosses they bear.
All: LORD, WE WANT TO SEE
Lord, we want to see as you see, to see others as you see them, to see ourselves as beloved, to see what is truly important. Lord help us to
see your love and your light.
Amen.

FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Weekly Memorization
Taken from the gospel for today’s session: One thing I do know, is that I was blind and now I see.

Meditations
A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action: (Adapted from an article by John Yates in “Preaching Today”) As he passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.

Commentary: The disciples couldn’t bear to let this opportunity slip away. They were just like you and I would have been. All their lives they had wondered about this age-old problem of pain. If God is a good God, and all powerful, why on earth would God allow a person to be struck down with such a problem? It was easy enough to understand if this person had been some despicable person. He would deserve to be punished. But this poor fellow was totally blind from the very beginning. When he came out of the womb, he couldn’t see. He had lived in total darkness. And so the disciples raised this question to their teacher. How did Jesus respond? Jesus could have explained that, although God is perfectly good and all-powerful, this world in which we live, which he made, has been corrupted by man’s sin. It’s a fallen, bent, crooked, broken place in which there are many selfish and harmful people, and in which there are millions of types of dangerous bacteria and viruses. All these forces are at work to make this a dangerous environment in which all people, evil or wonderful, are equally at risk, and no one is safe from danger. He himself, God’s own Son, was soon to be murdered. “All of us look to heaven as the only perfect environment.” Jesus could have said that. Or he could have explained that, yes, there are some situations in which the sin of the parent brings pain or grief or sickness on a child. We certainly see this in the case of children of alcoholics, or in instances where children suffer blindness or worse because of a parent infected with a venereal disease. Jesus could have gone into that. He could have explained that all suffering is not alike. He could have said, “Well, there are no pat answers. Here are several different things for you to think about.” He could have said, “Suffering has a place in God’s plan—in the lives of certain people and certain situations.” Jesus missed an opportunity. He could have preached an unbelievably good sermon that would have gone down in history as the most penetrating analysis of the problem of pain ever given. He was the Son of God. He knew the answers to this problem. So much of our own inner pain and philosophical bewilderment could have been once and for all settled if Jesus had just preached that sermon that his disciples had begged him to preach. Why did my father die as a young man? Why did this young mother and child die so cruelly in an automobile accident? Why that avalanche? Why that earthquake? Why that little boy without any arms? Why Auschwitz? Why Afghanistan? Why AIDS? He could have explained all of that, but he didn’t. He didn’t. And as a result, we still have only an imperfect, incomplete understanding of the answers to the problem of pain. Often, we still find ourselves perplexed and grief-stricken in the midst of tragedies that befall all people everywhere. What did Jesus do in this situation? He said: The only thing I’m going to tell you right now is that this situation is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for God to be glorified. It’s an opportunity to show what God can do. This is an important point: When you face tragedy, whether it’s sickness or natural disaster or whatever, you might be able to discern reasons why this is happening, and you may be able to lay the blame on someone or something. You may even be able somehow to see the hand of God in it. You may not, and it may seem God is not answering you when you pray. Why? It just may be the only answer you will get is this: “This has happened; don’t dwell on why. Rather, it has happened, and having happened, we now have an opportunity to see God at work.” That really is a much better answer. What a shame that Jesus didn’t give us an answer to our questions about the problem of pain. All he said was: Here’s an opportunity to see what God can do. Sickness and suffering are opportunities for us to show the love and compassion of God. I thought about that this week, and here’s what I thought: Sickness and people who are suffering around us provide us with an opportunity to show the love and compassion of God by caring for them and praying for them and working for their healing. It may be that God is calling you to medicine. It may be that God is calling you to work for the relief of suffering in areas stricken by famine. Perhaps God would have you become a part of our sick and hospital visitation ministry. It may be that God is calling you to a ministry of healing and relief for the sick and suffering. Affliction, sorrow, pain, loss, disappointment—they give us opportunity to demonstrate the love of God to people who are suffering. Many people, like this blind man in John 9, are too overcome by their suffering to be open to giving their lives to Christ. But when they are loved and cared for, when they sense the compassion of Christ through our deeds of mercy, they may, like this blind man, eventually come to Christ and find spiritual healing as well as physical healing. When tragedy comes, we always want to focus on the why. Jesus said it happens for a purpose, and that purpose is that the power and love and greatness of God might be seen more deeply through this. You may have a tragedy in your life one day. Will you see it as disaster, a terrible defeat, or will you see it as an opportunity—as awful and as painful as it might be—an opportunity for God to do new things? Will you look backward, or will you look forward?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions: Read the section from John again on the man born blind, and pay special attention to the reactions of the Pharisees. Pharisees have not been well regarded by Christianity as a whole, but the fact is, they were very religious people. God really was the center of their lives, and they saw that the best way to do God’s will was to be very attentive to the laws of Judaism. These were rather strict laws which imposed a considerable burden on those who chose to follow them, and the piety of those who followed the laws was very real. These were, in the main, good people. In fact, when we look at the American Catholic of the 1950s—rigidly and almost obsessively following “rules” such as abstaining from meat on Fridays, fasting each day of Lent, attending First Friday Masses, Stations of the Cross on Lenten Fridays, being very diligent about frequent confessions and the proper attire for Church--we can see a great resemblance between us and the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. The problem occurs when we think we know God better than anybody else does and proceed to judge others by our own religious standards. Spiritual arrogance is the problem for a lot of us, whether we realize it or not. Have I been confidently smug about my relationship with God because I appear to be a good person? I reflect on a time when I have I been judgmental of someone who made a decision which I thought was a bad or wrong one. Have I ever made a judgment about someone only to discover that I didn’t have the story straight? Did I share my judgment with others and injure this person’s reputation? I reflect on Jesus saying: since you say “we see” your guilt remains. I end my meditation with a prayer for true humility which allows me to see the good in others and to realize that all my spiritual gifts come only from God.

A Meditation in the Ignatian style/Imagination: Read this passage again from John 9:1-41. Imagine that you are the blind man. What, exactly, is your life like? Where do you live? What do you do every day? How do other people treat you? What do you think when you hear that Jesus is in the area? Why do you do what Jesus says? How do you feel to have your sight restored? Does it make you nervous when you are questioned by the Pharisees? How does your perception of who Jesus is gradually change? Do you believe him only because of the fact that he healed you? What is your life going to be like from now on? Would it change anything about your perception of Jesus if your blindness recurred? Returning to the present day and your 21st century life, reflect on where you need healing, where Jesus has enlightened you, and what your mission is to be in this life going forward. Make a realistic plan.

POETIC REFLECTIONS

This is a poem of great hope, that shows us that the light of Christ is in our midst today.

To us who live in darkness
To us who live in darkness
a great grace
passes through the night
like a star
the valleys and the mountains
are one land
the lion and
the young lamb
are one heart
darkness and light
are one life:
Peace shall find a home in us;
he shall walk with us
the long day the
great climb.
—Ed Ingebretzen, S.J.

Read the following poem from Mary Oliver, recalling a time when God walked with you through the darkness of your own life and, additionally, whether you have ever been blind to God’s grace.

The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church: The Eucharist
Something has happened
To the bread
And the wine.
They have been blessed.
What now?
The body leans forward
To receive the gift
From the priest’s hand,
Then the chalice.
They are something else now
From what they were
Before this began.
I want 
To see Jesus,
Maybe in the clouds
Or on the shore,
Just walking,
Beautiful man
And clearly
Someone else
Besides.
On the hard days
I ask myself
If I ever will.
Also there are times
My body whispers to me
That I have.