{"id":2086,"date":"2017-03-26T12:17:02","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T16:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2086"},"modified":"2017-03-26T12:17:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-26T16:17:02","slug":"4th-sunday-of-lent-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/4th-sunday-of-lent-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Sunday of Lent, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

4th<\/sup> Sunday of Lent, Year A<\/a>
\n1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
\nPsalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
\nEphesians 5:8-14
\nJohn 9:1-41
\nMarch 26, 2017<\/p>\n

Saul has turned out to be a bad king so God sends Samuel to anoint his successor.\u00a0 Kings were government leaders but they were also leaders in battle.\u00a0 So, when looking for a king you would want someone who has the experience to lead and <\/strong>is strong for battle.<\/p>\n

The Lord sends Samuel to the house of Jesse who brings forth his sons.\u00a0 They are impressive in appearance and the oldest are experienced but the Lord does not choose any of them.\u00a0 The Lord chooses the youngest, David, to be the new king.\u00a0 He is young but he is the one chosen by God for \u201cthe LORD looks into the heart<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, we turn to the story of the man born blind.\u00a0 Jesus is able to give the man physical sight in just the first seven verses but the story continues for another 34 verses.<\/p>\n

The fact that Jesus gives sight to the man who was born blind serves as a sign to who Jesus is but to understand the sign one must be open to seeing as God sees.<\/p>\n

Before Jesus gives the man sight, Jesus\u2019 disciples ask him, \u201cwho sinned, this man or his parents<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 They asked the question because their belief was that blindness (and any other major illness) was punishment for sin.\u00a0 Jesus answers that neither sinned to cause this.\u00a0 The man was born blind so the works of God could be revealed through him.<\/p>\n

The man must have been very happy to be able to see but, at first, he doesn\u2019t see Jesus as anyone special.\u00a0 When people ask him, \u201cHow were your eyes opened?<\/em>\u201d he responds with \u201cThe man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, \u201cGo to Siloam and wash.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

He simply refers to Jesus as \u201cthe man called Jesus<\/em>\u201d giving no indication of any recognition of Jesus as someone special.\u00a0 Well, maybe just a hint of it for what he calls an \u201canointing\u201d is Jesus putting mud in his eyes.\u00a0 When I anoint someone today, it is with olive oil blessed by our bishop so that the fact that the man calls what Jesus does an \u201canointing\u201d is, perhaps, the beginning of the recognition of God\u2019s grace at work.<\/p>\n

They take the man born blind to the Pharisees who say that Jesus is not from God because he heals on the Sabbath.\u00a0 This gets the man thinking about Jesus and what he has done.\u00a0 As he thinks he comes to say about Jesus, \u201cHe is a prophet<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

They continue their questioning, continuing to identify Jesus as a sinner.\u00a0 They are supposed to be experts in divine matters but they fall far short here.\u00a0 It is the man born blind who comes to say, \u201cIf he is a sinner, I do not know.\u00a0 One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 He comes to recognize his gift of sight as a sign from God and that has to count for something.<\/p>\n

They continue to reject Jesus saying, \u201cWe do not know where this one is from<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 The man replies, \u201cThis is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 To him, it has become obvious where Jesus must be from, God.<\/p>\n

Later, the man encounters Jesus and comes to believe that He is the \u201cSon of Man<\/em>\u201d, the one they have been waiting for.<\/p>\n

Ironically it is because of the Pharisees\u2019 refusal to believe that Jesus comes from God that the man comes to know that Jesus is the Messiah.\u00a0 They had closed hearts but the man born blind had an open heart and came to see who Jesus is.\u00a0 They saw only his humanity.\u00a0 He saw Jesus\u2019 divinity.\u00a0 He allowed Jesus to open his eyes not just physically but spiritually.\u00a0 Do we?<\/p>\n

Think of it this way.\u00a0 Our responsorial psalm today comes from the 23rd<\/sup> Psalm.\u00a0 Our sung response comes from the first verse, \u201cThe Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

One who sees in terms of things might take \u201cthere is nothing I shall want<\/em>\u201d to mean that God will give us whatever we want so that we have everything and, thus, no longer want.\u00a0 Of course, that is not what is meant here.\u00a0 Rather, I believe that true faith in God will change what we \u201cwant<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 God does provide for our needs but not all our wants.\u00a0 Rather, if we open our hearts, God will change what is in our hearts so that we realize that we do not need all the things we want such that we no longer desire them.<\/p>\n

This means coming to see as God sees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4th Sunday of Lent, Year A 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 Ephesians 5:8-14 John 9:1-41 March 26, 2017 Saul has turned out to be a bad king so God sends Samuel to anoint his successor.\u00a0 Kings were government leaders but they were also leaders in battle.\u00a0 So, when looking for …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘4th Sunday of Lent, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[9,82,260],"tags":[271,272],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-xE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2087,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086\/revisions\/2087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}