4th Sunday of Lent

4 ^th Sunday of Lent
 
What is it like to be someone who is blind from birth? You have lost one of your most important senses. How do you negotiate your way through this world? I suspect in childhood you spend your time bumping into everything until you figure it out. It becomes a great leap to find the courage to go out into the vast world not knowing who or what is in front of you. Everyone becomes a friend or a foe. Clearly your senses become heightened. You feel your way. You sense your way. Every sound becomes a signpost. Given your limitations it is a miracle that you are able to survive and thrive. To be admired. This was the world of the blind man until Jesus of Nazareth entered in. Thank you to Him for taking the time to heal this man of his blindness. I gather that when blind people get their sight back again it takes a while for them to adjust. They do not have sight perspective so they continue to bump into things. The glass is there on the table but I don’t know how to calculate how far away it is. With the gift of sight comes insight. I appreciate what having sight really means. I can see the world clearly. Ironically, for many of us, because we take it all for granted, we are blind as bats. We don’t see anything clearly. In fact we walk in a kind of daze. I can testify to that. I met a man in the Narthex. He moved away to California and now he was back for a short visit. I wanted to show him how things had changed in St. Catherine. I pointed to the new Parish Center being built beyond. I pointed it out to him. He looked confused. He assured me that the doors of the Church were beautiful. I barked at him that I was not talking about the doors. Could he look beyond the doors to see the new building outside? He never even saw it. That is how blind us seeing people are. The Pharisees in this story come across as a bunch of idiots. Instead of everyone rejoicing at the gift of sight they turn the man and his family into political footballs. This is an opportunity to score points for the party. We are members of the Pharisee party and we are against Jesus of Nazareth. Whatever He says and does we are automatically against it. Even when we see the thing with our own eyes we are against it. It never happened. You are making this up. Don’t you dare tell me how marvelous Jesus of Nazareth is because I will oppose you. Sometimes we can be ridiculous. I remember the mother of a friend of mine waiting for her Lottery numbers from the television. She watched in anticipation as each number was called. Gradually she faded when she realized that she was not the winner. Then they announced the winning numbers and who the winners were. Mrs… assured us that they will never find happiness with all that money. I didn’t get it. A few minutes ago she was planning how to spend her new fortune. Now she begrudged other people their happiness. We are all full of contradictions. We are all stupid lots of times. Why can’t I be happy for the good fortune of others? Why am I such a jealous thing? That blind man was given a chance to live independently. He was given a chance to see the world in a new way. The first people he gets to see clearly are a bunch of idiot Pharisees who want to make him into a political football. Please…go away!
With love, Fr. Pat