4th Sunday of Lent: Faith Insight, Jn 9:1-41

03-19-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Bing Colasito

The story of the man born blind in the Gospel this Sunday takes us back to the mentality among the Jews of that time; that such blindness is the result of the sins committed by the man or his parents. Jesus corrected that belief by saying that the blindness of the man was not because he sinned or his parents sinned, but so that God's power - comes to light in His ministry. Jesus proceeded to mix a little earth with saliva and put it on the eyes of the blind man. This action of Jesus alludes to the creation story in Gen. 2:7, LORD God formed the man (Adam) out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Adam is a popular Hebrew name that means the son of the crimson earth. By healing the man born blind, Jesus worked a new creation.

The readings show good contrast between blindness and sight, especially between the interior blindness of the scribes and the Pharisees and the Spiritual SIGHT experienced by the healed man. The Pharisees who knew the Scripture - you think would know better than to judge by appearance. They immediately judged the man as a sinner for being born blind and Jesus for healing on a Sabbath. But God sees not as man sees. God sees into the heart. When we pass judgment on the hearts of others while refusing to see or even acknowledge that we ourselves are blind – even if our eyes are open, our hearts can still be blind. When am I blind to the beauty of God at work in His people?

The Gospel also reminds us that true sight is not so much about seeing what is outside us but seeing; what is inside us. When Jesus healed the blind man, he received not only sight, more importantly, FAITH. Pray that God will grant us not only sight - more than that - FAITH insight. Faith enables us to see what chapter eleven of Hebrews says: Faith is the conviction of things unseen and the assurance of things we hope. Beyond visual sight that gives us information is the INSIGHT, interior looking that helps us become better persons.

Today is Laetare Sunday, a reminder to be joyful in our observance of the Lenten season. Let us set our sights on the hopes and joys beyond Lent, whatever or despite what life brings us. Our hopes and joys will help carry us through whatever life brings us, joy and sadness, ups and downs, success and failures, faith and unbelief. Happiness is an inside job; because true joy does not depend on people around us or circumstances outside us.

There was a father who lost his eldest son after just losing his wife the year before. The pain of a back-to-back loss was unbearable and just too much. His sight and insight into life are bleak and hopeless. He was beyond consolation; because his focus was on his losses. The light came when he was asked to focus on his blessings (he has four other children!) and not on what is missing. If we want to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we must focus on our mission. A priest once suggested that the most effective prayer to see the light is Come Holy Spirit.

One way to detect counterfeit money is to view it against the light. This season of Lent, let us expose ourselves to the light of Christ; so that we may know what is really in our soul, giving us a good INSIGHT of our spiritual life that leads us to live meaningful Christ-filled lives.