4th Sunday of Lent – A : (1Sam 16:1b.4,6-7,10-13; Eph 5:8-14; John 9:1-41)
Theme
Today we make our Lenten journey from ‘our being’ to the pool of ‘Siloam’, that is Sent and wash ourselves.
Reflection
Just we go back to remember where we are in our journey and how we are making our Lenten walk towards the joy of Resurrection.
- In the first week we made our journey to the ‘Desert of fasting and prayer’ and thus we leant to renounce everything to make ourselves united to Christ.
- In the second week we made our journey to the ‘Mount Tabor of the vision of Transfiguration’ and thus we leant to imprint this vision of future glory in the hearts and strive to fulfill the mission entrusted to us and thus building the bridge between Vision of Transfiguration and Mission of Disfiguration for the sake of salvation.
- In the third week, the Samaritan week, we made the journey to the ‘Fountain of Living Water’ and thus leant to break the hardness of heart (pride and disobedience) like the people of Israel in the desert and accept the Fountain of Life, that is, the Spirit who makes us be humble and obey his commands and thus be nourished by the fruit of his word and thus making the ladder grounded in the Rock of Hope (the first reading: water from the Rock in the desert) and moving higher with the steps to the Spring of Life (the Gospel: Living Fountain as Jesus Himself).
- In this week, we make our journey from the ‘outward appearance’ to the ‘inward being’ (first reading); from the ‘time of darkness’ to the ‘hour of the day’ (second reading); and from the ‘what we are’ to ‘what we are sent’ (gospel).
First reading
- God prefers and chooses what is small and unnoticed by the people:
o Even the prophets, the spokesmen of God, can behave in this way: looking the external appearance and judge accordingly. Here we can notice how the prophet Samuel has mistaken the elder and the first seven sons of Jesse to be the one that God elects. He thinks this way by looking at the form and structure of the person, his height and his beauty and so on.
o Even the parents and elders do not expect and accept, even worse, do not invite this way of neglecting the ‘big ones’ and preferring the ‘small/little ones’: we can notice how Jesse responds to the prophet telling that ‘there remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep’. He never thought that he would ever be noticed by anybody because he is very small and least of all. And the small one, David, is called in, the totally reversed moment takes place: God tells the prophet to hurry up and anoint him.
- God wills to be glorified in the small and in the little ones:
o Being little/being small is not a humiliation (may be in the sight of human mind) but a glorification (in the sight and will of God who made himself little by being born among men).
o We do not hesitate to be the least ones/ last ones/ small ones in the community or in the society, because, after all, it is the ‘means’/the only means to be the greater ones/counted ones/written ones in the kingdom of God.
o We can, by this example of scriptural passage, accept and invite happily (in the Christian charity) the misunderstandings, the murmurings, the misbehaviors and even the stones of humiliation into our life. We need not be preoccupied with them or upset our life because of them, because, we have an answer that God’s ways are beyond the apprehension of mere man.
- We shall be ‘these little one’ in this lent:
o In that way, we open the door of being chosen
o In that way, we broaden the possibility of being saved
o In that way, we have the opportunity to be anointed by God.
Gospel reading
- Initiative of salvation is God’s:
o We see in many other miracles worked by Jesus that either, others bring the sick to Jesus for the healing (like the paralyzed man dropped down from the house top by the four people); or, the sick himself cries out to Jesus for the healing (like that of blind man who shouts ‘Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me); but here in this particular passage (as that of last week’s, the Samaritan women) Jesus himself goes in search of the sick (either, physically blind from the birth as in today’s Gospel, or, spiritually/morally sick as in the account of Samaritan woman).
o Jesus who “walked along” saw a man blind from birth: this ‘walking along’ can be also interpreted as ‘being with/among/for the people’, as God who ‘has visited his people and redeemed them’ (Lk 1:68, Zacchariah’s prophecy). He came on to the earth to visit (son of man came to search and save the lost) and offer healing (salvation).
o He himself has taken the first step to contact him and to offer him the grace of sight. He cures him and sends him to be ‘as the one who is sent’ (Siloam). The one who is sent is always ‘full of light’ and ‘full of knowledge of God’ and that is ‘Jesus’ himself.
- The curing of the born blind man takes us back to the origin of man’s creation:
o Jesus gives him completely another life. The blind man who is unable to see from his birth, who is in the ‘absence of light’ from the beginning, is now able to see. This is the new sight (new life), not the sight lost (not the repaired life).
o This carries us back to the creation of man in the beginning. There was no human being. God has created man (new being).
o Even the gestures of healing of Jesus such as, taking the mud, spreading on the eyes, command of washing in the water, reminds us the gestures of first creation. Even God takes the mud, forming from it a being, filling it with the spirit (water and life).
o Jesus who came to make everything new (new heavens and new earth as says St. Paul) has to re-start/ re-initiate everything from the beginning; and this aspect of re-forming of man is seen in this account of man born blind.
o We see always this main stream of theology in the writing of John (Gospel, letters and Apocalypse). He show Jesus Christ as the Word in the beginning, in whom all have the new beginning (like the blind man who has the new beginning of light/sight).
- Being blind (born blind) is not a deed of God but God can make it as an instrument for his glory:
o Jesus gives new dimension of viewing the events: “not his sin or his parents’ sin that made him born blind” (this was the view of Jews that the sickness is the consequence of sin / consequence of God’s wrathfulness);
o Jesus makes every event (good or bad in the sight of men) as an occasion to glorify God (this is the view of Jesus that more than counting the sins/sinfulness of man, we do give glory to God in and through the condition in which man is).
o We can develop this positive attitude of viewing the daily incidents of our life: we can consider them the occasions to sing the mystery of God’s doing, (which is not so easy to understand as in the first reading).
o Taken in this way, the difficulties/the problems can appear to us not as the blocks of disappointment but as the bricks of anointing of God (as in the summery of the first reading).
- The scene of the gospel account – and – the context of today
o Jesus, the donor of the light of seeing : the giver of salvation (God)
o Blind man, the recipient of the sight : the receiver of the grace (Man)
o The way (the medium) is ‘washing in the Siloam’: the sacraments (Church)
o Disciples, the seekers of the truth : the community (Followers of Christ)
o People around: who knows the man well: who needs the proof (testimony)
o Pharisees: who refuse to accept the truth and suppress it (disbelief and pride)
o Parents: who know the truth but do not take risk (fear and preoccupation)
o Sin: around which whole miracle runs (absence of faith of the believer)
- Now we can ask ourselves few questions:
o To which group I belong to?
o What blocks us to be the authentic recipient of the grace of God?
o How far do we go to the Church “Siloam” to wash ourselves?
o How do we consider our failures and our problems and even our joys and our faith?
o Do we fear to bear the testimony of God’s goodness in our life like the parents of today’s gospel?
o Like this we can have numerous questions: it is difficult to pose them all here. But we can make use of this time of lent to take pains of reflecting and deep meditation of our life. This could be our task of this Lenten week.
Conclusion
- It’s not so easy to summarize and make the reflection of this gospel miracle
- It’s very hard to put it in simple words and leave it because it is very rich in its theological significance
- Simple facts are very clear:
o Entering into the interior being of the person to understand him better (first reading)
o To be able to accept and life the ‘littleness’ and ‘smallness’ in the society and in the church because we have the promise of Jesus “let the small ones come to me for theirs is the kingdom of God”.
o We are the ‘people of the light and people of the day’ (second reading) and so we have the mission to see clearly and walk properly (in word and deed).
o Jesus and his mercy always passes us by and we have to recognize and make ourselves near to him so that we receive his grace and light (gospel).
o Testimony, even in the situations of fear and occupation, has to be given by the word of faith and deed of love.
- Therefore: in this week we shall walk (make our journey) towards the Siloam ‘who is sent’ and so towards the Christ ‘who is sent’ by God and towards the Church ‘who is sent’ by Jesus Christ.
- To him be the glory forever and ever.
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