FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

“¿Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Jn. 9, 1-38

Rev. Alexander Díaz

It is interesting to see how Lent advances, and what I love the most is to see how it develops; from the temptations, we pass to the transfiguration and from there to the encounter of Jesus with the woman from Samaria. 

The Liturgy, the readings of each Sunday center us towards the figure of Jesus. Finally, the whole period of Lent is oriented to remember the intense days of the Passover in Jerusalem, where Jesus lived His own personal Passover. 

The gospel of this Sunday marks another event in the public ministry of Jesus and is given thru the healing of a man who was born blind.  In the biblical text of today, to “see” is a symbol of faith. “To see” is to have faith. 

To recover the sight is to enter the world thru faith. To enter this world, it is necessary to be close to Jesus.  The blind man had never seen  the light, hence he received  many beatings, he had been knocked down many times throughout  his whole life, he had been led by people he didn’t know. 

Jesus gave him the gift of sight, to feel the real world, the freshness of light.  Faith is the refreshing element that helps us see clearly the problems of our lives, this is why it is necessary to hold on to Jesus’ hand, because He is the only one who can give us the light we need to go on. 

“To see” is to look at the world with Jesus’ eyes, to perceive life as the Lord wants it to be, not as we human beings have been demonstrating.   “To see” is to understand that to follow Jesus is not only to transmit a few concepts or some doctrines, for the most part repetitive and empty. To follow Jesus is to carry these concepts and doctrines deep down inside, to plant them with conviction in this life and thru this life others around us will also understand.  

I always tell the Catechists that the children, who are getting ready to receive the sacrament of first communion to show them with conviction, make them understand, that they live it, not to configure computers that do not understand what they are saying while praying to our Lord.

Many will say, the children are ready to receive first communion because they can pray, they know all the commandments and the sacraments.  To know all these is very important because it allows us to go further than what we believe in, but what is really most important is to live fully in Christ. 

 I am sure that if I ask the children they will answer with mathematical precision.  On the other hand, if I should ask them, who is Jesus, most likely for them, He is a stranger.  It is important to educate our children to know Jesus, be with Him face to face, without any nearsightedness that will frustrate our encounter with Him. 

To accept Jesus as the One sent by God, the One who is able to open our eyes to understand.  But to overcome our blindness, the lack of understanding, is a long process that each person must do on his/her own. 

In the center of all these events, are the Pharisees,  who doubt not only the miracle but the capacity of seeing that the blind man acquire.  The Pharisees represent the complete lack of understanding, the real blindness; they do not want to recognize Jesus, even though they have in front of them all the proof of His good deeds.

They only see that He healed this man on a Saturday and that, to them, is to disobey God.   Afterwards the blind man will step forward to confirm that “this man is from God” and he even began to “teach them”, giving lessons to the ones who were supposed to be the teachers of the Law. 

The positions have been reversed and that offends the Pharisees, they are not willing to learn, because they do not want to admit their blindness.  Our grandparents used to say, there is no worse blind, than the one who does not want to admit his blindness, that is how they represent their ignorance. 

To them is not enough to see, to have good eye sight and be able to distinguish the figures and forms.  There is also, another way of seeing, of knowing, another way to interpret the figures that are seeing. 

The Pharisees said that the man who was blind from birth was born blind as a result of sin and that is why he is unable to understand clearly what he sees.    I ask myself: ¿Why as human beings, we always have to judge and question God’s plan? ¿Why do we always have to be right, even when we are wrong?  ¿Why do we play with the signs that God sends us? 

Those are our real blindness, enclosed, inflexible, and without exits.   In today’s Gospel Jesus is able to transform a belief to a new valor.  Who did not perceived faith, now recognizes Him as the Messiah, now he can “see” the world and himself with a very different look.  

We need for Jesus to heal our blindness, which are more than one.  It is possible that our glance on others might be in a serious trend of conversion.  It is possible that your sincere desire to follow Christ produces magnificent possibilities of miracles towards the ones around you. 

But the blindness that must really worry you is your own, the one that does not allow you to see yourself as you are for God, for yourself and for the others. 

There are Christians able to perceive the blindness on other people but are not able to see their own darkness.  To be blind inside is not to find the path of hope, is to be an ignorant of God and oneself.  Jesus does not act on that person’s life because his mind is far away from His message; “To see” means to love. 

Whoever does not love, stays in absolute darkness, in the most profound death of his faith.   The fact is not to ask ourselves how much or how little we know about biblical texts, not even if we have deep theological knowledge. 

The question is if all I know will get me lovenly closer to God and others.   If I see myself growing in love, I am on the right path. If I perceive that my love for God and others decreases, then my blindness has grown. (Mario Santana Bueno)

We are Christians not only because we follow what Jesus said.  We are Christians because we follow Him in person.  We do not follow ideas, we follow Jesus, the healer and savior.   This gives me the impression that most of our brothers and sisters are not clear about faith.  They, as myself, need to be healed of their blindness.

Amen!!