Reflections on the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Sunday Mass Readings

I was sitting at my desk Wednesday morning, trying to put my thoughts together for my homily this Sunday. Just when I thought I was on to something, the intercom rang and the receptionist informed me that there was someone here who wanted to talk to a priest. I reluctantly went up and there stood this eighty year old man. Numerous things went on my head. May be I should make an appointment with him for later, may be I should ask him to wait till I got my homily done. Instead we sat and talked. He said how at this age he wanted a new beginning. He shared about how he had moved away from the church and his faith. Although, over the past ten years he had been going to Church, he still felt he needed something more. He shared about how he was ready to make a confession, come back to God, and begin all over again. His story was so moving. I went back to my room and sat there still for a moment. This homily was triggered from this experience. As I will reflected on today’s readings, I realized how this man was so much like the man who had recovered his sight. Here was someone else who had come from darkness to light and from mediocrity to making Jesus the undisputed Lord of his life. The themes of light and darkness are prevalent throughout the scriptures. There was darkness before God said, “Let there be light.” Hence, both in the Old and New Testament, light is the manifestation of God’s nature and everything that is Good, including life. Darkness, on the other hand, because it represented the chaos that existed before creation, is associated with Evil. In the New Testament, darkness is caused due to two reasons: it could refer to a physical condition such as blindness or it may be the result of turning away from the light (Jn 3:19-20). We find both these examples in the gospel reading today.

That brings us to the gospel passage today. The incident that John narrates is not a simple account of blindness or a simple account of healing. Today’s gospel presents an irony. It is an account of people who are physically in darkness and yet they “see,” and the account of those who are physically in the light but really are in darkness. There are those who are naturally blind and there are those who have turned away from the light. The blind man’s movement toward Jesus is a contrast to the Pharisees’ movement away from Jesus. Being blind, he recognizes Jesus, whereas, even with sight the Pharisees move toward darkness. The blind man came to Jesus to have his sight restored but apart from his sight it is his faith, his life that is restored. The Pharisees, on the other hand, exclude themselves from the Kingdom

In today’s second reading, Paul uses the theme of light and darkness to address the Christian community at Ephesus. He asks his readers to “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth (Eph 5:9). The reading prompted me to pose this question to myself, “What does it mean for me to be in the light?” The answers to this question form the three practical implications for today.

1. The first meaning of “living as children of the light” is to allow Christ to be the undisputed Saviour of our life. The blind man’s relationship with Jesus went through various phases. I call the first phase “partial knowledge” phase. This is the phase where he called Jesus “a man.” We could be in that phase of our faith, where we believe in Jesus because we were baptized as little children, but we have no idea of the power of Christ within us. We believe but there in no personal relationship with Christ. The second phase is “discovery phase.” This is when the blind man had this inner conviction that Jesus was a prophet but did not know how to fit Jesus into his life. That is why he said to the Pharisees that he did not know who Jesus was even though he had been healed of his blindness. We could be in the second phase where we believe in Jesus but if someone asked us to explain our faith we would not be able to explain. We have not defined for ourselves what our faith in Jesus means for us. In the third phase, the blind man’s conviction begins to turn into faith. He says to the Pharisees who accuse Jesus of being a sinner, “If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” It is at this point that he began recognize as a man of God. We could be in the third phase, where we have faith in Christ but are short of turning our faith into concrete action. We come to Church but that has no or only limited influence on our day to day life – how we think, talk and act. The final phase was the blind man’s willingness to confess Jesus the undisputed Saviour of his life. Even though he was thrown out of the synagogue by the Pharisees, he finally confessed, “I do believe, Lord.” John tells us that after he had said that he worshiped Jesus. It is only now that the blind man in totally healed of his blindness. He sees... and he sees. It is only now that he not only sees but also recognizes Christ. For us too, it is only when Christ is the undisputed Lord of our lives that we are in the light. Let me explain this in my second practical implication.

2. The second meaning of being in the light means to “Live as children of light
for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth” (Eph 5:8).The implication of making Christ the undisputed Lord of our lives should show in our producing “every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth.” In other words, our faith in Christ must turn into action at every time and at every place, in our thinking, in our talking, and in our actions. We are in the light, when our thoughts, talk, and action, produce goodness, righteousness (right relationship with God, others, self), and truth.

3. Paul has another advice for the Ephesians. He says, “Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness.” The Pharisees in the gospel reading provide a contrast the blind man in the gospel reading. They can see but yet do not see. They are so blind with prejudice, so blind with hatred, so blind at the thought of losing power, so blind to a new message, so blind to Jesus good works, so blind that they cannot feel happy about a good thing that has happened. They are so blind that they so not even recognize a miracle. They are so blind that they miss God. They were in darkness. Darkness is the opposite of goodness, righteousness, and truth. Darkness is sin. There is darkness in us when resentment, lust, and lies have more power over our lives, than forgiveness, purity, and truth. There is darkness in us when prejudice, selfishness have more power in our lives than openness and selflessness. There is darkness in our lives when wealth, power, and fame bring more happiness to us than the presence of God.

The same Jesus who brought the blind man from darkness to light will be in the Eucharist in a few moments. Let us confess Jesus as the undisputed Saviour of our lives. Amen.

Fr. Satish Joseph