FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT: A. Mar 2, 2008

 1. Sam 16:1,6-7,10-13  Psalm: 23 Eph: 5: 8-14  John 9: 1-41 The Man born blind.

The one who was blind can see, and those who can see have become blind.

1. We have a man who is blind from birth. Jesus gives him sight and so brings light into his world of darkness. St. John does not call this healing a miracle, but a sign. Jesu is a sign that He is the Light to the World.

 The Scribes and the Pharisees are also a sign. They are a sign of their times, of their religious beliefs and their practices. These are good in themselves. The challenge of the Scribes was to take a closer look at these beliefs and observances to examine their value and purpose. They were to see Faith and their practices as signs leading them to God. However they failed to look beyond the signs. They made these signs ends in themselves. They became rigid in holding on to dogmas and practices.  As a result:

Jesus became the Light of the World.

The Scribes continued to remain in darkness. They did not even realise it.

2. The Apostles are no better. They had received through tradition that illness, pain, sickness and deformity were a punishment for sin. They ask if the blindness is due to the man’s sins or that of his parents. If he was born blind he could have sinned before birth. Furthermore God is not pro-active in punishment. “This man will be born blind, just in case, he might commit a sin.”  In fact, God does not punish, because God can get no satisfaction in seeing any one suffer. There are laws of God and Law of nature to lead a safe life, to lead a full life. When we break these laws, we pay the price. We cannot shove the responsibility on God. No wonder Paul in the letter to the Romans said, the Wages of Sin is death.

3. The Scribes and the Pharisees could not accept that Jesus could be good because the healing was done on the Sabbath. They were not adherents to God’s Command, “Keep holy the Sabbath day.” They were rigidly attached to their own man-made interpretations of how the Sabbath was to be observed. They had put everything including God’s image and God’s commands into neat little, manageable pigeonholes. They could no longer think outside of the box. Hence when the healing of a blind man was done on the Sabbath

• they were unable to rejoice that a son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was restored to health
• they were unable to rejoice that another human being could enjoy sights, colours and the beauty of nature.
• they were unable to accept something good because “their” attachment to their religious observances made the blind to the action of God. Even God could not do this because it was on the list of things that could and could not be done on a Sabbath.

4. The destructive nature of unexamined religious beliefs and practices has been seen in our own time. We have had suicide bombers. We have had killings and persecutions and kidnappings in the name of religion. The more unsure and insecure we are of our beliefs, the more rigid and unbending we are in holding on them blindly.

 This rigidity is seen in our own faith as well. One has only to speak about the Tridentine Mass, to receiving communion on the tongue or on the hand, to stand or kneel to receive communion and tempers flare. Often more heat than light is generated in these discussions.  Certain Religious TV programmes have claimed even more truth than the Gospel teachings. Decrees from the Vatican are implemented without a question. “Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die” these words of Alfred Tennyson from the “Charge of the Light Brigade” best describes the Blindness of rigidly held religious beliefs and observances.

5.  Quite a few of our teachings and traditions are so similar to Scribes and Pharisees 2000 years ago. They leave us with a fear and guilt, when we should “Rejoice in the Lord” as the opening antiphon from Isaiah 66 invites us .  We find safety and security in these crutches and walking sticks.

 The Letter to the Ephesians tells us that we were once in darkness. There is no reason to stay there.  Some of us like the Scribes and Pharisees prefer to stay there. It becomes our comfort zone. But we are challenged to be a light in the Lord’s presence and t live there as the children of the light.

6. We were given the gift of both intelligence and the choice that elevates from the level of our pets and other animals. Our challenge is to examine the values of the world, to examine the dictates of religious beliefs and creeds. In our first reading David was chosen as King. This went contrary to the obvious choice of the world and our society. The one who had to be chosen was the eldest, the strongest and the best looking. But God’s ways were not the ways of man. Similarly if like the Scribes and Pharisees, we claim that we are not blind, then we should use our sight to see the Path of God and make the decision to walk in God’s ways.

Homily #2

Like Schuberts unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor... I started this but could not end it... so I am adding it at the end... in case you can find matter for prayer

Prologue: Our readings today are a smorgasbord of emotions.

First : We have Isaiah 66 telling us to “rejoice, be glad”. This is in anticipation of the Easter Joys. It is like the mouth watering aromas one gets as you approach a good Italian bakery, even before you can see or eat. 2. We have the pomp and circumstance of the anointing of David as King in the first reading. He is considered so unlikely that he is not even entered into the competition for “Israeli idol”. 3. The third is a clarion call from the Letter to the Ephesians, “sleeper awake, rise from the dead.” It is the “rise and shine call.” 4. Finally, we have the “aw gee’ story of the cure of the Blind Man, and the boo calls for the Scribes and Pharisees because of their smallness of heart.  We have plenty of pictures to contemplate and a whole topic for prayer during the coming week.

1. Our Gospel is the Encounter of Jesus with a man who has been born blind. The Disciples ask an odd question: “Is it because of his sins or the sins of his parents that the man is blind?” In the first place God does not punish us for our sins. Our sins bring their own punishment.  Pain, sickness, death are the wages of sin, either ours individually of the sins of our community. A drunken driver often kills a totally innocent victim. But even if we say the blindness is a punishment for sins, how could it be for the punishment of a man born blind. God is not pro-active, punishing for sins, the man might commit in the future.  However, even today, we hear people say:

• my daughter, my son is dying because we did not come to Church on Sundays.
• or I had this accident because I curse to much, or I have an addiction.

2. Blindness in the physical sense is a tremendous loss. We who have been blessed with sight cannot imagine the colours and the beauty of nature and persons that the blind people miss. However, the loss of sight is often compensated with a sharpening of other senses. We have heard of the blind being expert musicians, piano tuners, wine and tea tasters.

3. The Gospel here points to another blindness. The blindness of heart and the blindness of the mind. The Scribes and Pharisees claimed they could see. Their minds however were totally blocked from realising that the Law of the Sabbath was a law from God. The many and intricate Sabbath laws were made by man and consequently were binding in so far as the Scribes enforced them.

4. There is another blindness that Jesus condemns. It comes as the end of the narrative. It is the blindness of being fascinated by external and superficial beauty. This happens to be the key to understanding the first reading from the Book of Samuel. David is chosen King even though from an external standpoint he was the least likely candidate. All his brothers were stronger, bigger, and more impressive looking. They were definitely the likely leaders in any physical contest. However, as we will later hear in the beautiful hymn of the Magnificat:

“He has cast the mighty from their thrones and raised the lowly.”

5. Physical blindness may cause bruised shins, bleeding noses, and black eyes because we bump into things. However, it often strengthens the determination to follow through a difficult task. The blindness of a close mind however can prevent us from meeting the “angel with a dirty face” or the rough diamond which is overlooked until it is polished and only then we see its beauty.