The Universal Church celebrates Sunday, March 22, 2020, as the fourth Sunday of Lent - Year A. The fourth Sunday of Lent comes three weeks before Easter. It is also called the Laetare Sunday, the Sunday of Rejoicing when the austerity of Lent is briefly set aside. The organ is played in church, flowers are allowed on the altar and the purple vestments of Lent, signifying penance, are put aside.
In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Rejoice, Jerusalem! Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her, and you will find contentment at her consoling breasts. Amen.”
The first reading continues the Lenten presentation of major stages in the history of God’s saving work. It speaks of the anointing of David, who was seen as the forerunner of Christ. In the second reading, Paul uses the imagery of light and darkness to show the Ephesians that if they lead a life of darkness they cannot withstand the new vision of human conduct inspired by Christ. In Saint John’s Gospel, we see Christ our Lord himself giving sight to the man born blind: a passage which expresses the cleansing effect of baptism on our lives. We pray for the grace of light so we can lead our brothers and sisters to Christ, who alone brings light to the world and gives sight to the blind and strength to the lame.
First Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1. 6-7. 10-13.
The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons." Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the Lord said, "Take a heifer with you, and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.' Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you." Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, "Do you come peaceably?" He said, "Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these." Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
Comment
If we take a quick look at history, we see that the two Books of Samuel (1st and 2nd Samuel) cover the period of Israel’s history from about 1050-961 BC (i.e. from the period of Samuel and Saul to practically the end of the reign of David). This period represents the rise of the monarchy in Israel, the transformation of the formerly dispersed tribal communities of Israel into a national body under a central authority. Israel became a homogenous national entity with a land, common history, deity, and a common destiny.
First and Second Samuel take their name from one of its main characters: Samuel. In the passage selected for our meditation this day, David is chosen, not by a human agent, but by the voice of God. Whenever God has to choose somebody for a great mission he seems to take pleasure in upsetting all the logical rules of common sense. God does not look at things and at people through human eyes; people care for the external, for appearances, while the Lord looks at the heart. That is how he calls David to be king. David is a mere shepherd boy whom no one could ever have chosen over his elder brothers, who appear to Samuel as fitter material for leadership.
What lesson can one draw from this passage? We learn that the choice of David over his brothers serves to underline the freedom of divine election. God can call any of us at anytime for his divine mission. He does not call anyone because of his or her looks or wealth. He calls whom he wills, when he wills it. Maybe he is calling you right now for a divine mission to your brother or sister, especially he or she whose faith has weakened. Maybe the Lord is telling you to go to him or her this very minute and bring him or her with you to Church this day. Maybe you are not hearing him because you pay more attention to the exterior of the person to whom the Lord is sending you this day. If we listen to the voice of the Lord and accept it in faith, we learn to look at the world and humankind through the eyes of God.
Let us pray with Saint Benedict of Nursia for the grace to listen to God’s word talking to our hearts and for the wisdom not to pay too much importance to physical appearances but rather to the heart. “Gracious and holy Father, please give me: Intellect to understand you, reason to discern you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, a spirit to know you, a heart to meditate upon you, ears to hear you, eyes to see you, a tongue to proclaim you, a way of life pleasing to you, patience to wait for you, and perseverance to look for you. Grant me a perfect end – your holy presence, a blessed resurrection and life everlasting. Amen.”
Second Reading: Ephesians 5: 8-14.
For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
Comment
Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is an exhortation to celebrate the life of the church in Christ and to live that life in a manner worthy of our Lord. It has many baptismal themes and its description of the ideals of Christian life is unsurpassed in the New Testament. This letter centers more on Christ in his Church than on Christ as a person. The Church embraces the whole universe. The sublime mission of the Church and of all its members is to bring salvation to the whole of creation, a task that is particularly pertinent to our times.
The Church is equipped for its mission because it is built on “the foundation of the apostles and prophets,” and has Christ as head and source of its life and work. This unity with Christ and among the members of his Church is one of the main themes of this epistle.
The passage we are invited to meditate upon this day is a general exhortation to live in the light of Christ and of truth, not in the darkness of sin and error. Paul often uses the imagery of light and darkness in his moral exhortations. Here he warns the Ephesians not to continue to live a life unworthy of Christians, as it cannot withstand the new vision of human conduct inspired by Christ. The warning he gives the Ephesians is equally addressed to us today. Our imitation of Christ, he says, will show up our past deeds for what they are.
What can we learn from this passage? We learn that our baptism has awoken us to the brightness of a new day, a new life in Christ. Faith in Jesus is the foundation of the unity of family and Church, and love is the binding force and expression of that unity.
Christ has come to unite all humanity in himself so that all its members may be united to one another. Christ is the light bringing salvation to humanity without exception. The life and preaching of the church, acting in the person and the agent of Christ, are the means by which Christ’s light shines on the world.
Let us pray for the grace to receive the light, which Christ, the giver of light, brings into our lives this day. “God our Father, you who said: “Let there be light shining out of darkness,” make your light shine in our hearts so that the knowledge of the glory of God, which is on the face of Christ, may shine there also. We make our prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Gospel acclamation: “Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God. I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life. Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God.”
Gospel: John 9:1-41.
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight." They said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know." They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see." Some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?" And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet." The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?" His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, "He is of age; ask him." So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, "Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner." He answered, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" Then they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." The man answered, "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They answered him, "You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?" And they drove him out. Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him." Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he." He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshiped him. Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.
Comment
Today, Saint John presents Christ to us as the giver of light. To help us meditate on the numerous lessons one can draw from this reading, I have made recourse to, among other sources, Cameroonian Jesuit Priest Stephen Forbi’s book entitled Sunday Gospel Reflections- Year A: Harden Not Your Hearts (2003) in which he tells us that Saint John uses this chapter on the cure of the man born blind to challenge the spiritual blindness of the leaders of Israel. After the man receives his physical sight from Jesus his neighbours, and particularly the Pharisees, ask him about his cure. He replies: “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me. ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So the blind man’s first perception of Jesus is that he is a man, a remarkable man, but a man all the same.
The second stage in the blind man’s gift of sight comes when the Pharisees question him further. They ask, “What do you say about Jesus, since he opened your eyes?” The man replies, “He is a prophet.” His answer reveals a growth in his understanding of Jesus. His spiritual vision of Jesus takes a giant leap forward. The more the blind man thinks about what has just happened to him, the more he becomes convinced that Jesus must be more than just an ordinary man. He must be a prophet!
The third stage in the blind man’s perception of Jesus comes later in the day when he meets Jesus face-to-face. We should recall that when the blind man returns from the pool of Siloam after recovering his sight, Jesus is no longer around. Now he meets Jesus who looks directly into his eyes and asks: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man answers, “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus answers: “You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he.” “I do believe, Lord,” the man answers and falls on his knees before Jesus and worships him.
As he did to the Samaritan woman by the well in the Gospel of last Sunday, Jesus once more reveals his true identity to humanity through the blind man. Like the Samaritan woman, the blind man hears him, sees his works of wonders and believes him completely. So, the ordinary people seem to have no difficulty accepting the divinity of our Lord and Saviour.
In acknowledging Christ as Saviour, the man, who has just been cured of blindness, moves from regaining physical sight to gaining spiritual sight. The man’s spiritual vision of Jesus takes its final leap forward. He perceives Jesus to be more than a man; he is a prophet. He sees him as the Lord before whom, as Saint Paul tells us in Philippians (2:10), “every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”
The Fathers and Doctors of the Church have seen Christ’s miracle of this day as symbolizing the Sacrament of Baptism in which, through the medium of water, the soul is cleansed and receives the light of faith. Saint Thomas Aquinas, commenting on this miracle, says that Christ sent the man to this pool to be cleansed and to be enlightened, that is, to be baptized and receive in baptism full enlightenment.
In this miracle, Jesus once again reveals himself as the light of the world. But not everyone accepts that light. There are those who, like the blind man and the Samaritan woman at the well, straightforward people, believe in Christ as envoy, prophet, the Son of God and the light of the world. But then there are those who, like the Scribes and Pharisees, persist in their spiritual blindness by not wanting to see or believe, despite the clear evidence before them.
The question for us to reflect on this day is, among others, is in whose camp are we? Are we with the Pharisees, who reject the light, or are we with the cured man who sees Jesus as a giver of light, or with the Samaritan woman at the well, who comes to believe in Jesus as the giver of the water of life? Lent is four weeks old already. As we look back over these four weeks with Christ in the desert, has our faith grown with him? What improvement has taken place in our lives because of our reflection on the works of Christ? As we reflect on these questions, let us pray with Saint Origen for the grace to see Christ, giver of light, in all that we do today and to accept him into our souls.
“May the Lord Jesus touch our eyes, as he did those of the blind. Then we shall begin to see in visible things those which are invisible. May he open our eyes to gaze, not on present realities, but on the blessings to come. May he open the eyes of our heart to contemplate God in Spirit. We make our prayer through Jesus Christ the Lord, to whom belong power and glory through all eternity. Amen.”
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