Fourth Sunday of Lent - 2017

Recently, I saw a video of a young boy being given a special pair of glasses, enabling him to see colours for the first time. He looks out in amazement, then begins to cry and turns and hugs the person who gave him the glasses. This video you can see on YouTube. [ . . LINK . . ] The little boy could see, just not colour. But imagine the impact on a person born blind who becomes able to see for the first time. In Jesus’ time, blindness, and other serious sight problems were common, with little hope of solutions. What is worse, people considered blindness as God punishing a person for their sins. The question raised in today’s Gospel asks, but who sinned if that person is born blind? Jesus comes into the world to heal blindness – not simply physical but spiritual blindness. This miracle of the healing of the blind man will demonstrate Jesus mission, “. . . so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." All through the gospels, the people Jesus encounters are like the boy unable to distinguish colours. They have some idea of the importance of right religion but are blind to the full purpose of religion; that is – become holy as God is holy; become merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful. Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mk 2:27  . . .   If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. (… would not be condemning me.)  Mtt: 12:7 – There are two major religious/spiritual blindness’s to deal with in our time: the first is not having any religious faith at all; the second is practicing religion without a true conversion of heart. The Pharisees Jesus is dealing with in today’s gospel are of this second kind. They see their religious practice as a way to manipulate God. They think that strict obedience of religious laws pleases God. It is all God wants. These Pharisees fail to understand that the law is meant to direct them toward God, but God wants more than their conformity, he wants them to love the truth and goodness that the law points to – to be holy as God is holy. Here is a simple illustration of how this might play out today.  A Catholic couple are getting ready to go to Sunday Mass. They are devout and faithful Catholics who would never miss mass. They see it as a serious obligation. Then one starts to become ill and they appear to be getting worse. But the other says, “I hope you start to feel better soon, but I can’t help you right now, I must go to Mass, it is my obligation. I will check on you when I get back”; and they leave their sick spouse alone with serious illness. Wrong. They do not understand the reason for this serious obligation to attend Sunday Mass. We go to Mass to learn from Jesus the importance of loving God wholeheartedly, but not only loving God, but loving our neighbour as well; how, to love and care for them as God loves them, is also a serious obligation. To leave your spouse in serious need so you don’t break the obligation to go Sunday Mass, fails to understand its full purpose of that obligation. As we hear this gospel passage today and enter this fourth week of Lent, let us examine ourselves in the light of these two spiritual blindness’s. First, is my focus on the importance of the practice of my faith weakening? Is this secular age clouding my vision? Am I developing the cataracts of indifference and mediocrity which are starting to render me blind and deaf? This past Thursday, Pope Francis’ message in his homily at morning Mass pointed out that when we turn away from God and are deaf to His Word, we become unfaithful or even “Catholic atheists.” Second, is the problem of Phariseeism affecting how I see the practice of my faith? Do I think that all God wants is to see me at Mass on Sunday, while I pass judgement on others and ignore the needs of my neighbour? An article on modernday Phariseeism [ . . LINK . . ]