Fourth Sunday of Lent 1 Sm 16:1, 6-7 & 10-13; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41 (year a)
‘God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances, but God looks at the heart.” These words, spoken long ago by the prophet Samuel, prefaced the anointing of David as Israel’s king. The onlookers were amazed. David was a mere boy, the youngest, and, to their eyes, qualified only for minding sheep. We are reminded that God does not see as we see, and that his choice was fulfilled when Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, was welcomed as a Son of David.
As we approach Palm Sunday, and prepare to celebrate Christ’s entry into our own lives, let us humbly confess that we do not always see ourselves as God sees us, and that our ways are not always his ways.
Light and darkness are a recurrent theme throughout the Scriptures. They are powerful images describing the choices we make. We can choose light and sight, or darkness and blindness. Thus St Paul invites us to become “children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth”.
As we have been touched by sin, we carry within ourselves the seeds of darkness. Let us find reassurance in the promise that Christ is the light that the darkness could not overcome, and that in him our darkness is turned to light.
St John’s account of the man born blind, restored to sight by Jesus, is a reflection on the spiritual blindness that can so easily diminish our appreciation of God’s presence.
The blind man surrendered himself to Jesus, and through faith came to understand his words: “As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the World.”
The Pharisees refused to accept Jesus. Theirs was a different kind of blindness, the sinful blindness that prefers to cling to its own diminished understanding, refusing the light that seeks only to heal and restore.
Our Lenten repentance is expressed in many different ways, but always it must embrace Christ as the only true light, and reject the sin that darkens our understanding.
At the conclusion of this long episode, Jesus challenged the blind man whose sight had been restored. “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” When Jesus identified himself as the Son of Man, he replied with unhesitating faith. “The man said, ‘Lord, I believe,’ and worshipped him.”
Let us pray that we might confess Christ as our light, and, in him, become children of the light.
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