Lent IV [A]: I Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41

The Gospel of today presents Jesus as the light of the world. We have today the marvelous story about the cure of a man born blind.  John’s aim in presenting us with this marvelous story about the cure of a man born blind is to show Jesus as our light. 

A few verses before today’s Gospel, in John 8:12 Jesus called out: "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life." Jesus is not just setting the scene for the drama of the Man Born Blind. He is speaking directly to us, to you, and to me. He is telling us to put our trust in Him, to rest in him, and to know that no matter what happens in this world, good or bad, positive or negative, we will always enjoy the Light of Life.

John narrates that as Jesus and His disciples were walking along, they encountered the blind man.  The disciples ask Jesus the reason for his blindness: whether it is his own sins or the sins of his parents.  During the time of Jesus, the popular belief was that there was a close link between sins and a chronic sickness or disability and that the sins of the parents could have effects on their children. We remember when the paralyzed man was let down through the roof at the feet of Jesus, seeking to be healed; surprisingly, Jesus’ first words to him were, “Your sins are forgiven.”  Here, in this case, Jesus clarifies the meaning of suffering in the life of a person.   The blindness of the person has nothing to do with his sins or those of his parents.  He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.

 

In John’s gospel, seeing is synonymous with believing. Our Lord uses physical sight as a metaphor for something of even greater importance, spiritual sight, to see with the eyes of faith.

First, we have the disciples of the Lord. They have been the privileged recipients of the mysteries of the Kingdom and witnessed first-hand the Lord’s miracles. They, like so many others, truly believe that they can “see.” It is with this presumed sight that they pose what appears to be a clever theological question with regard to the disability of the man born blind, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?” Well, it is absurd to think that his own sins caused him to be born blind. It is assumed that people reap what they sow, that ‘bad luck’ is a result of ‘bad karma’. Our Lord corrects them: “Your assumptions are flawed.” “He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” The same concept is explained in the book of Job. Job’s friends thought he was being afflicted because he sinned. But he strongly refuted saying he had done nothing wrong to be punished. At the end, when the test of his faith was complete, he was restored to whatever he lost during the trial of his faith.

The next group is the blind man’s neighbors and people who knew him as a blind beggar. The sight of the blind man being able to see should have inspired awe at seeing the wonders of God, but instead, what arose was incredulity.

Then we have the man’s own parents, who are summoned as witnesses. They recognize their son, and they also recognize the amazing transformation, if not a miracle, that has taken place – their son, born blind, can now see. And yet, they refuse to acknowledge this out of fear of being implicated in this escalating controversy.
Finally, we have the Jews and the Pharisees, who were scandalized by the fact that the Lord had performed a miracle on a Sabbath in violation of their ritual prohibitions. They have heard the testimonies of the blind man, his neighbors and family members but still refuse to “see”. They’d rather believe their biased opinion of Jesus than what their “lying eyes” are revealing to them. The story culminates in this parting shot of the Lord aimed at the Pharisees: "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, 'We see,' so your sin remains.

Yes, all these characters claim to be able to see, but can they really? For our Lord, the real question is whether the lack of seeing is voluntary or involuntary. While the blind man couldn’t help being blind, the others, who could have seen, deliberately chose to be blind. Therefore, their guilt remains. At the heart of this fascinating narrative is a simple but powerful contrast: the man who is blind from birth who sees nothing, but upon encountering Jesus, the Light of the World, sees clearly. On the other hand, the other characters all claim to be able to see clearly, but at the end of the story expose themselves to be truly blind. They deliberately chose not to see. So, the only character that finally sees is ironically, the man born blind.

In today’s world, we see a large number of people refusing to accept and believe what is blatant and true. Those who stand by the truth are branded as conservatives or crazy religious. We need to pray for the world to be healed of blindness and see the glory of God’s goodness in the world and the people around them. Let us also pray for ourselves that our eyes are readily open to witness His presence and glory in our life.