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.”