th<\/sup> Sunday of Lent, Year A<\/a>
1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 (1)
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
March 22, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile we are\nnot able to come together for Mass this Sunday because of the Coronavirus, it\nis still good for us to reflect on the readings for Mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Sunday\u2019s\ngospel tells the story of \u201cThe Man Born Blind.\u201d \nThe healing of the blind man is the sixth of seven great signs done by\nJesus as told in the Gospel of John. \nThese signs are miracles and good for the people in the stories. They also help us to know who Jesus is, that\nthe power of God is at work through him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the\ndisciples see the man born blind, they ask Jesus, \u201cRabbi, who sinned, this\nman or his parents, that he was born blind<\/em>?\u201d To understand their question we must remember\nhow they saw illness and infirmity in those days. It was seen as punishment for sin. <\/p>\n\n\n\nSo, noting\nthe man\u2019s blindness, Jesus\u2019 disciples assume a sin has been committed. Jesus helps them to see things in a new way,\nsaying, \u201cit is so that works of God might be made visible through him<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nJesus speaks\nof \u201cday<\/em>\u201d and \u201cnight<\/em>\u201d. He\nidentifies himself as \u201cthe light of the world<\/em>.\u201d He brings light to the blind man by giving\nhim his sight. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAt first,\nwhen the man is able to see, he sees what has happened only in physical\nterms. When he is asked how his eyes\nwere opened, he replies by saying that Jesus made clay and anointed his eyes\nand he then washed in the Pool of Simeon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, the\nPharisees become part of the story. When\nthey hear what has happened, they miss the importance of the miracle and focus\non the fact that Jesus did this on a Sabbath, breaking the law against doing\nwork on the Sabbath. Stuck in seeing the\nworld in their terms, they fail to see the sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But there are\nothers who are open to seeing something more who ask, \u201cHow can a sinful man\ndo such signs<\/em>?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nMeanwhile,\nthrough the dialogue the man born blind moves from seeing what has happened\nonly in physical terms to proclaiming that Jesus is a prophet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He doesn\u2019t\nknow who Jesus is. He doesn\u2019t know if\nJesus is a sinner. What he does know is\nthat he was blind and now he sees. He\nknows that means something even if the Pharisees don\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He says, \u201cIt\nis unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he would not\nbe able to do anything<\/em>.\u201d He has made\na great leap in his faith. Ultimately, he\ncomes to know Jesus is the Son of Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn this\npassage, the disciples were led from seeing illness as punishment from sin to seeing\nit as a means of revealing the \u201cworks of God.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe blind man\nwent from not knowing Jesus at all to knowing him as the Son of Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Jesus\u2019\ndisciples and the man born blind were open to seeing things in a new way, to\nmove from seeing the world only in human terms to seeing as God sees it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pharisees\nin this story (not all Pharisees) were not open to seeing things\ndifferent. This made them blind to who\nJesus really is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are living\nin a trying time. The Coronavirus has\nchanged the way we live. One might\ndescribe what we are experiencing as living in \u201cdarkness.\u201d We might even fear the darkness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why might we\nfear? Obviously, we might fear that\nsomeone we love or even we ourselves might get the virus. What will happen then? The good news is that most people\nrecover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We might also\nfear what is happening in response to the virus. The lockdowns and empty shelves in the\ngrocery might lead us to fear. There is uncertainty\nin all of this. We might fear what is\nunknown (what we can\u2019t see). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do we really\nneed to fear? For instance, how do you\nsee the empty shelves in the grocery store? \nNow, if you need something now and can\u2019t find it in the stores, you can\nbe concerned about what to do. Yet, we\nshould remember that this virus does not mean we need more food and supplies\nthan normal. There is enough out\nthere. It is simply that people have\npanicked and stocked up. One has every right\nto stock up within reason but please don\u2019t hoard more than you need. You won\u2019t need anymore toilet paper than\nnormal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, we\neach have our needs that we are concerned about. Different people will have different things\nthat concern them most. I\u2019m not going to\ntry to name all the concerns here. You\nknow what yours are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pray about\nthem. Ask God to help you know what you\nreally need vs. what is just a \u201cwant.\u201d \nThen, ask God to \u201cguide<\/em>\u201d you in your needs. Ask God to help you find \u201crestful waters.<\/em>\u201d We may feel like we are in a \u201cdark valley<\/em>\u201d\nright now but remember what the 23rd<\/sup> Psalm says, \u201cEven though I\nwalk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side<\/strong>,\nwith your rod and your staff that give me courage<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nI end with\nthe words that make up the Prayer over the People for the final blessing for\nMass this Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLook upon those who call to you, O Lord,
\nand sustain the weak;
\ngive life by your unfailing light
\nto those who walk in the shadow of death,
\nand bring those rescued by your mercy from every evil
\nto reach the highest good.
\nThrough Christ our Lord.\u201d
\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For those unable to attend Mass this Sunday, here are some helpful links before sharing my homily: Catholic Courier list of TV and Online Masses Readings for this Sunday, March 22, 2020 Act of Spiritual Communion 4th Sunday of Lent, Year A1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13aPsalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6 (1)Ephesians 5:8-14John 9:1-41March 22, 2020 …<\/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":[714,82,10,260],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-QE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264"}],"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=3264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3265,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3264\/revisions\/3265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}