From blindness to sight, ignorance to understanding, unbelief to faith

Homily for 4^th Sunday of Lent Year A 2014

1 Sam 16:1, 6-7, 10-13 • Eph 5:8-14 • John 9:1-41 or 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38

Introduction

For the second Sunday in a row, we have listened to a long gospel, last Sunday about the woman at the well, and today about the blind man.  These long passages tell the story from beginning to end, switching up things with a host of complex characters and even throwing in some humor.

You must have chuckled a little when you heard the part where the blind man’s parents try to wash their hands off the whole incident saying: “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.”  Clearly, as much they loved their boy, mom and dad did not want to get into trouble with the religious authorities on his account.

On the contrary, the blind man is quite courageous and has a somewhat snappy tongue.  When the Pharisees keep bugging him to describe again and again how he was healed he mocks them saying: “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?”

Scripture and Tradition

Of course they don’t want to become his disciples.  In fact, the moral of the story is two movements:

·        The man, who, at the outset is blind, will end up not only seeing with his physical eyes, but will also see with the eyes of reason and with the eyes of faith.

·        On the other hand, the Pharisees, who start out being fully sighted, end the story, lacking understanding and lacking faith.

For the blind man, it is more than his physical eyes that are opened; the eyes of his mind, that is, reason and the eyes of faith, that is belief, are also opened.

·        We see him out-reasoning the Pharisees, when they deny that Jesus is from God.  The cured man tells them: Look, we know that God listens to people who are devout and do his will.  God has listened to this man who asked him to heal me of my blindness.  “If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.”  The Pharisees for their part cannot understand or refuse to accept this very clear reasoning that proves that Jesus is something special – he is from God.  That is why, earlier, they had tried to force evidence from the man’s parents, that this man was not blind after all.  While the blind man exercises his reason, the eyes of the mind, the Pharisees have become blind to it.

·        Besides being able to see with his physical eyes and with the eyes of the mind, he can also now see with the eyes of faith, the most important eyes he needs.  When later on he meets Jesus again and realizes that Jesus is the Son of Man, he says: “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.  For the Pharisees on the other hand, we heard Jesus tell them: “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”  The Pharisees, not only fail to see with the eyes of the mind, they also fail to see with the eyes of faith.

Christian Application

We are in the fourth week of Lent now.  This gospel passage, with its themes of sight and blindness, darkness and light, understanding and ignorance, belief and unbelief, should help us evaluate how far we have come with our Lenten discipline.  Have far have we travelled on the journey from blindness to understanding to faith?  Hopefully we have not taken the reverse journey of the Pharisees from sight to ignorance to unbelief.

One area where we take the route of the Pharisees is when we commit the sin of prejudice.  For what is prejudice if not the blindness that comes from ignoring the evidence of our senses and experience, the wisdom that reason gives us, and the confidence of faith?

Recently, a man, who looked quite disheveled, came to our door at the seminary where I live.  On seeing him, my first thoughts were, he is probably a homeless man looking for a handout.  But after I greeted him and attended to him, I found out, that all he wanted was a priest to pray for his daughter who was sick in hospital.  This man did not once ask me for any money.

·        Prejudice makes us blind, because it stops us from getting to know people and who they really are, like the Pharisees failed to get to know Jesus, because they were stuck in the preconceived ideas as to whom the Messiah must look like.

·        Prejudice also makes us ignorant because we refuse to base our actions on reason and rather base them on preconceived assumptions.  Reason tells us that not all people are the same, not even people who belong to the same group.  Reason should tell us that not every white person or black person is the same; not all Cajuns or Creoles are the same.  Not all Italians belong to the Mafia, nor are all Irish short-tempered.  And you can be sure, that not all Africans share the deficiencies of Fr. Deo.  But like the Pharisees, who ignored the blind man’s reasoning, we may be tempted to simply ignore reason and act on prejudice.

·        Prejudice is not only a sin against physical evidence and reason, it is also a sin against faith.  Prejudice stops us from seeing God in another person, as Jesus repeatedly asks his followers to do.

Conclusion

And the of the gospel story, the Pharisees ask Jesus: “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”  I hope that we will not have the arrogance to presume that we are okay.  For the fact of the matter is that we also are sometimes blind, especially when we commit the sin of prejudice and other sins.  Some of our sinful blindness is physical, such as any addictions we might have; some of our blindness is in the mind, like when we act out of ignorance; some of our blindness is in the heart, like when we have hate and envy.

But there is hope.  Whether our blindness is physical or mental or spiritual, if we open our eyes, minds and hearts to the Lord, he will heal us.  He has given us the remedy of the sacraments, especially the sacrament of confession.  Let us take advantage of this sacrament, to heal us of any blindness we might have.  When we do that, we follow the teaching of St. Paul who told us in today’s second reading, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”

Living water and Saving bread

Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Lent Year A 2014

Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2,5-8  John 4:5-42

Introduction

When Jesus says to the Samaritan woman at the well: “Give me a drink” he is doing something that people, especially those who live in warm areas have done for centuries and continue to do today.

As some of you know, I come from Uganda, a country in the Tropics where the weather is usually warm.  But two weeks ago, during Mardi Gras, when I visited there, being the dry season, it was extra dry and extra hot.  Unfortunately, clean drinking water is always scarce in Uganda; but especially during the dry season, a drink of cold water is hard to come by.

And so anybody travelling from one place to another in that weather, like I was doing, has to learn at least one phrase: “May I have some water to drink,” even if they cannot speak the local language.

Scripture and Tradition

That is why the Samaritan woman should not have been surprised that this traveller at the well was asking her: “Give me a drink.”  But she was surprised because Samaritans and Jews did not share utensils, since Jews considered Samaritans ritually unclean.  The request of Jesus, however, only sets the stage for the conversation between Jesus and the woman.  When Jesus tells her that he can offer living water that quenches thirst forever, she asks “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

She is asking for ordinary water; but that is not what Jesus has to offer her.  He is using water as a metaphor for his life-giving message.  The living water of Jesus is the love of God the Father which Jesus has brought to the world.  He is a prophet, the promised Messiah, the Christ.  And that is why Jesus gives her, not the ordinary water she wants, but another kind of water.

·        First, in him she meets the Messiah himself, “the one called the Christ; [who] when he comes, he will tell us everything.” In fact, after meeting Jesus she tells the townsfolk: “He told me everything I have done.”

·        Second, not only does she meet the Saviour, but he also brings her to conversion, when he brings up the subject of her marriages, helping to reflect on her commitment to marriage

·        Thirdly, as a result this meeting Jesus, even her relationship with the townspeople is been repaired.  For once her own thirst has been quenched, she runs back to the city, to share her new found living water with her neighbours.  They come and hear Jesus himself speak they tell her: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”  Her days of being an outcast are gone; she does not have to go to the well by herself anymore, or go at noon when nobody else is around.  She has been restored to the community.

This woman’s simple request for water to drink, has given her much more.

Christian Application

In the Lord’s Prayer, we also make a similar request when we say: “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Is this not another way of saying like the Samaritan woman, “give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty?”

We have seen that the Lord seems to ignore both requests: he does not give her any actual water and he does not give us any physical bread.  It is because the Lord knows that these material things we can probably get on our own, and especially when we work together as human beings.

·        The drinking water she was asking for, the Samaritan woman could easily get by dropping a bucket down into the well and hauling it up with a rope.  Moses provided such water for the grumbling Israelites in the desert as we heard in the first reading.

·        Similarly, we today can provide clean drinking water for even the people in poor countries, with a little effort and generosity.

o   Did you know that a few hundred dollars can provide a family in Africa with a small hand-dug well?

o   Did you know that a few thousand dollars can provide a school with gutters and cisterns for collecting rain water from the roof?

o   Did you know that a deep well and hand-pump costing about 10,000 dollars can supply water for a whole village?

·        And when it comes to daily bread, we human beings can work together to make sure nobody goes hungry.  We meet this need by sharing our food with others as we are doing, for example in the Lenten Rice Bowl program.  But an even better way is to provide poor farmers with the skills, seed, fertilizers and water that they need to grow more food.

Yes, Jesus knows that we can easily quench our physical thirst and satisfy our physical hunger in these ways.  But what we cannot do except with his help, is quench our spiritual thirst and our spiritual hunger.

·        That is why when the woman asks for water, he does indeed give her water – the living water of salvation.

·        That is why when we ask for daily bread in the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord gives us the bread of life, the Eucharist and the other sacraments.

If we recall from our catechism classes, sacraments are those signs that give us grace or what is called the divine life or God’s blessings if you like.  The seven sacraments are Jesus’ answer to our cry for water and for bread.

1.    In baptism, using the sign of water, the Lord forgives our sins and gives us a new life with God.

2.    In confirmation, using the sign of chrism oil, the Lord gives us the Holy Spirit, which comes down on us and guides us in our lives.

3.    In the Eucharist, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord gives us himself; he is the bread of life, the cup of salvation.

4.    And then when the new life received in baptism is damaged, nicked a little or much by sin, in the fourth sacrament of confession, the Lord once again forgives our sins and gives us again new life in God.

5.    When the new life received in baptism is threatened by the burden of illness, in the fifth sacrament of anointing of the sick, the Lord gives us healing – spiritual and physical healing.

6.    And although marriage is a natural institution, for Christians the Lord has raised it to the level of a sacrament, by giving the married couple, the grace of commitment and love for each other.

7.    Finally, the Lord left his Church in the hands of the apostles and their successors.  But he did not leave them without help.  In the sacrament of Holy Orders, he gives bishops, priests and deacons the spiritual strength they need to carry out their particular ministries in his name.

Conclusion

As we continue with our Lenten observance, of fasting, almsgiving and prayer, let us remember that we are not alone; the Lord is ready to help us; all we have to do is ask, “Give me a drink for my thirst – give me bread for my hunger.”

And as we receive spiritual water and spiritual bread from him, let us be inspired to give to others what we have received.

·        We give them physical water and physical food, which makes their lives here on earth a little better.

·        But we must also give them the living water and bread of life, the Good News of Salvation, which gives opens to them the doors of heaven.

Sneak-peek of Heaven: Going to the Mountain of the Lord

Homily for 2^nd Sunday of Lent Year A 2014

Gen 12:1-4 • 2 Tim 1:8-10 • Matthew 17:1-9

INTRODUCTION

Mountains have a special role in the Bible.  There are the places where God reveals the most important things about himself.  There is Mount Sinai with Moses, Mount Carmel with Elijah and the Mount of Olives where today’s gospel story of the Transfiguration takes place.  And that is why the expression “mountain-top experiences” has come to mean those powerful and inspiring incidents in our lives.

A few years ago I attended an 8-day retreat, which was for me one such mountain-top experience.  Through conversation with my retreat director, through more intense prayer and through silent meditation, I experienced the love of God in a very spectacular way.  And as my retreat came to an end, I did not want to return.  Like Peter I wanted to build three tents and remain there in that dreamlike experience.

Of course that was not to be; as beautiful as mountain-top experiences are, they are not meant to be permanent.  They serve a specific purpose, after which we have to leave that bubble and return to the real world.

SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION

It is for a specific purpose that Jesus brings Peter, James and John to the mountain, to have that experience of seeing him like they have never seen him before.  You will perhaps remember that this is the same threesome that he takes with him to pray in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was arrested; they are the inner group, the inner cabinet if you like.  He wants to teach them an important lesson; and this is the lesson.

A few verses before the story of the Transfiguration, Jesus had just announced to his disciples for the first time that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”  The disciples found this message both disturbing and unthinkable, since for them, a Messiah was someone who would come in glory and power; not someone who would suffer.  In fact when Peter tells Jesus that such suffering could ever happen to him, Jesus is quite stern with him, using those famous words: “get behind me Satan.” And then Jesus tells his follows that they too will have to suffer like him.  For “Whoever wishes to come after me,” Jesus says, “must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

And so, after proposing this rather severe picture of what it means to be a disciple, Jesus now provides a morale booster, an antidote, if you like.  By giving these three this experience of the Transfiguration, he assures them that this suffering, both on his part and on their part, is not for nothing.  It is the means by which they will share in the glory of the Father.  And in this experience of the transfiguration, they have a sneak-peek of that glory, to which they must look forward, for which they must work hard.

You might say that Jesus is acting like a plastic surgeon: he is showing them both “the before” and “the after” picture.  Yes there is all this pain and suffering, but at the end of it all, there will be a nice reward waiting for you.

·        We heard that they saw the face of Jesus shining like the sun and his clothes becoming white as light.

·        We also heard that Moses and Elijah, two Old Testament heroes appeared in glory and were standing there, chatting with Jesus.

·        And as if a facelift, a wardrobe change and speaking with revered dead men was not enough to impress the three apostles, while they were still there, a large cloud enveloped them and a loud voice cried out: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

And so, this transfiguration experience gives them a preview of who Jesus really is, the Son of God and what living with him in heaven will be like.  This experience will help them to understand the suffering and death of Jesus and the hope of his resurrection that he promised them.

CHRISTIAN APPLICATION

We too need a mountain-top experience of the Lord, especially since the Lenten season is a difficult journey of penance.

·        Last Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, we read about Jesus being led to the desert, where he fasted for forty days and forty nights.  And certainly we are called upon to go to the desert during this Lent, to fast, abstain, give alms and pray.

·        It is perhaps no coincidence then that on the Second Sunday of Lent, we read about the disciples going to the mountain and having the experience of the Transfiguration, to encourage us on our Lenten journey and show us where it all leads.

This passage should remind us of our own mountain-top experiences, which remind us in a vivid way, about the things of heaven and life with God for ever.

·        Sometimes this sneak-peek into heavenly things is our experience of a beautiful sunset, a breath-taking mountain or even a refreshing evening at the beach.  In the wonderful works of nature we see the hand of God who created an orderly and beautiful world.

·        Sometimes this sneak-peek into heavenly things is our experience of the goodness of others, of the innocence of children, even of falling deeply in love.  Once again in all these things we see God at work.

·        But the most compelling mountain-top experience should occur during our prayer, perhaps before the Blessed Sacrament and at Mass.

Jesus knew that we too would need a mountain-top experience.  And so he left us the Eucharist.  When we come to Mass every Sunday, like the three disciples, we leave behind, at least temporarily the cares and concerns of our everyday world and come to have a foretaste of what life with God is like.  That is what Jesus promised, that “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn. 6:54); that wherever two or three would be gathered in his name, he would be among us.  And so we come back every week to the Eucharist, to the mountain of the Lord, to experience and receive Jesus himself in this very special way.  We come to remain anchored, strengthened and properly oriented for the difficult journey of life.

And then having experienced this special communion with the Lord, we have to come down from the mountain and get back to ordinary life.  We cannot, like Peter, opt to remain on the mountain; rather we must bring our mountain experience to inform the valleys of everyday life.  For Peter than meant coming down and accepting the suffering and death of his Lord and Master.  For us, coming down from the mountain means that we must return to the world ready face the daily crosses of family life and work life.  When the deacon or priest dismisses us: “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life,” hopefully we shall be up to the task, for we shall have experienced the Lord personally and deeply at Mass.

CONCLUSION

As we continue our Lenten journey of conversion and penance, perhaps we might consider making a concerted effort to go more regularly to the mountain of the Lord in prayer and return down to the valley stronger.

·        We might consider going to daily Mass, if we don’t do it already.

·        We might consider making our annual confession, if we’ve not done so already.

·        We might consider other devotional practices, such as Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Way of the Cross and the Rosary.

May our Lenten fasting, abstinence and almsgiving continue to be inspired by fervent prayer, so that as the Letter to Timothy told us, we may bear “our share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God.”