4th Sunday Lent A - Homily 6

Homily 6 - 2023

Today's Gospel passage presented us with the familiar account of Jesus' cure of a man born blind. What is special about the story is the variety of reactions of the people mentioned in it — a group of neighbours, another group of Pharisees, and particularly the blind man himself.

Of the neighbours, some stated that there was nothing unusual to explain. They declared that he was not the man born blind, though they conceded that he was like him. For them. that was the end of the story. Other neighbours accepted that he was indeed the same man — but they did not know what to make of the fact that now he could obviously see. They were confused, but realised that they could not simply let the incident pass unresolved. So in their uncertainty, they passed him over to the authorities. And that was the end of the story for them.

Those authorities to whom they handed him over were Pharisees. Pharisees had the reputation of being reliable men of God, experts in orthodoxy and champions of tradition. Anything new they saw as a threat. The possibility of a miracle was deeply unsettling. Most Pharisees desperately sought to maintain the status quo.

Without needing to deny the evident miracle, some concluded that whoever worked it was obviously a sinner because he had infringed the Sabbath. Other Pharisees disagreed, saying the undeniable evidence of the miracle indicated rather that the one who performed it could not have been a sinner.

In the forlorn hope of avoiding the issue somehow, they asked the blind man his opinion. He simply conjectured, “He is a prophet” — which was precisely a conclusion they were trying at all costs to avoid. To counter it, they vainly declared, in line with the cultural assumption of the time, that his blindness from birth obviously illustrated his sinfulness and the consequent unreliability of his judgment. Recognising their inability convincingly to deny the obvious conclusion, and yet totally unwilling to accept it, they sought to eliminate the problem altogether — and threw the blind out of the temple. They preferred the comfortable familiarity of the status quo at the price of truth, decency, and personal honesty.

The response of the blind man on the other hand was so beautifully different. He came quickly to recognise, accept and whole-heartedly relate to and connect with the unique specialness of Jesus. His growing insight led him from categorising him as a prophet to intuiting his utter uniqueness and finally to entrusting himself totally to him as Lord. To him, Jesus had become real.

What might the story say to us? We live now in an age which is agnostic, pluralistic, seductive, and distracting. Sadly, though being born into a Christian family and even attending church, people can still see their faith as little more than an ideology, a collection of reliable truths, or even as a community of worship; and do little more than barrack for it as they might for their favourite football club. Of themselves, these things fall short of actual faith and personal trust in God — without which everything else crumbles under pressure. There is only one way to real and personal relationship with Jesus and with God, and that is prayer — not prayers, but personal prayer. And praying personally needs time.

Let us face the issues — unlike the blind man’s neighbours and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel.

Do you remember from last Sunday's Gospel what the Samaritan townspeople said of themselves to the woman whom Jesus spoke to at the well? “Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves — and we now know that he really is the saviour of the world”. She had brought the good news of Jesus. They took the steps to come to know him.
Can we say, from experience: “We have heard him ourselves”. “We know he is the saviour of today’s world.”