SUNDAY HOMILIES FOR YEAR A

By Fr Munachi Ezeogu, cssp

Homily for 4th Sunday in Lent
Home > Homilies > Year A > Lent 4 Epistle

Healing the Blindness of the Heart

1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13 Ephesians 5:8-14 John 9:1-41

Jehovah's Witnesses are great at house to house evangelism. I remember
this man who used to frequent our neighbourhood. He was blind. He
usually began by raising up his red-edged Bible and shouting, "I was
blind but now I see." This way he would attract a group of curious
people around him and begin witnessing to them. If you needed a
distinction between physical and spiritual blindness, this is it. Physically
he was blind, but spiritually he was clear sighted, or at least so he
believed.

Today's gospel centres on the analogy and distinction between physical

and spiritual blindness, as do most of the Gospel miracle stories where
Jesus heals blind people. The early Christians saw physical blindness as
a metaphor for the spiritual blindness which prevents people from
recognizing and coming to Jesus. These stories testify, therefore, to the
power of Jesus to heal not just the blindness of the eye but, above all,
the blindness of the heart.

The clue that the evangelist intended this story to be read on these two
levels, physical and spiritual, is found at the tail end of the story:

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." (John 9:39-41)

The mission statement that Jesus gives here is valid not only for the
Pharisees but also for the men and women of our time. To learn from
Jesus we must first admit our ignorance, to be healed we must first
acknowledge our blindness, to be forgiven we must confess our sins.
The I'm-OK-you're-OK mentality so prevalent today may in fact not be
too far from the mentality of the Pharisees. The great archbishop Fulton
J. Sheen used to say that in the past only Catholics believed in the
Immaculate Conception but today everybody thinks they are
immaculately conceived and, therefore, sinless.

From earliest times today's gospel story has been associated with
baptism. Just as the blind man went down into the waters of Siloam and
came up whole, so also believers who are immersed into the waters of
baptism come up spiritually whole, totally healed of the blindness with
which we are born. For, like the blind man in the gospel, we are all born
blind - spiritually, that is.

Another reason why this story was used in the preparation of

catechumens for baptism is that it spells out in a very dramatic way
what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus. It is, in fact, a story of how a
blind man who used to sit and beg became a disciple who went about
witnessing to Jesus. As in last week's story of the conversion of the
Samaritan woman by Jacob's well, this story of the healing of the blind
man shows that the one thing you need to qualify to bear witness to
Jesus is not doing a certain kind of studies but having a certain kind of
experience. The crisis of faith in our time is not very different from the
crisis of faith of the Pharisees, namely, thinking that true piety means
knowing and following the Book. But Christianity has a lot more to do
with knowing and following the Person, the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

The crisis of membership and commitment we have in our churches

today can be traced to the understanding in the past that being a
Christian was a matter of following certain doctrines and rituals. The
most important thing, bringing people into a relationship with Jesus was
neglected. The irony of the situation is that it is only after such a
personal relationship with the Lord that people can begin to appreciate
the importance of church worship and doctrine for the life of faith. Faith
experience comes before theology. That is why the blind man arrived at
the true faith in Jesus before the learned Pharisees. So, when in our
ministry we stress doctrine and ritual over personal encounter with the
Lord, one begins to wonder whether we are not putting the cart before
the horse. Let us today admit our spiritual blindness and pray with St
Augustine of Hippo in the spirit of Lent and today's gospel: "Lord that
we may see." The Lord will give us light and spiritual insight.

4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
March 30, 2014

Who Are the Really Blind?

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
 A Blind Spot

There is a story about a man who had just sat down at his desk to begin his
workday when an associate of his came running in, out of breath. Panting, he
cries out, “I was almost killed outside.

“I had just walked out of the deli, (huffing and puffing)where I buy an egg salad
sandwich every morning (trying to catch his breath) when, when, a police car with
its sirens blaring and its lights flashing rushes by me chasing another car down
the street.

“The police car rams into the other car… crash! Bang! Glass flying
everywhere! Then the guys in both cars got out and started firing shots at each
other… bang, bang, bang!

“And there I am … right in the line of fire with bullets whizzing past my ears. I’m
telling you, Joe, I’m lucky to be alive.”

There’s a long pause of silence, and then Joe speaks. “Do you eat an egg salad
sandwich every morning?”

Blind Spots

You might say that Joe got so focused on the egg salad sandwich that he had a
blind spot to the terror and upset his associate had just experienced.

In today’s Gospel story, Jesus gives physical and spiritual sight to a man who has
been born blind. But he is also poking at the rest of us – telling us to be aware of
our blindness or blind spots.
At times we can be just like Joe in my story. It is safe to say that we all have some
spiritual blindness or blind spots that keep us from seeing the truth about others
or ourselves.

In the Gospel, we see three of the primary causes of our spiritual blind spots.

Cause 1: Preconceptions

First, preconceptions or preconceived ideas cause blind spots in us. Jesus’

Apostles are operating out of the belief that physical impairments like blindness
are caused by sin.

Jesus straightens out their thinking and tells them that no one’s sin caused the
blindness. But it is pretty clear that this preconception causes a blind spot in the
Apostles and they looked down on this man and his parents.

Preconceptions also cause blindness in us. For example, a very recent media
report tells us that we can have a preconception against the poor and especially
against anyone who uses food stamps or other forms of government help.

No question, there can be abuses in any system, but sometimes our

preconceptions can lead us to blame all the poor for their own situation and look
down on them. Preconceptions like this create blind spots and keep us from
seeing people as persons, as human beings like ourselves.

Cause 2: Fear

Fear can also cause blind spots. The parents of the man born blind are afraid
even to understand what has really happened to their son.

They are afraid that if they try to understand they will be alienated from the
synagogue and from among their friends. Their fear creates a blind spot in them
and keeps them from seeing the truth of what Jesus has done for him.
Fear can also cause spiritual blindness in us. Perhaps you refuse to talk with your
spouse, or your son or daughter, about tensions because you’re afraid of what
they might say to us or about us.

We are afraid that we will have to admit to some wrongdoing or change

something in our behavior as well. So our fear can cause a blind spot and keep us
from seeing the truth about ourselves.

Cause 3: Self-Interest

And finally, self-interest can cause blind spots in us. The religious leaders in this
Gospel story feel very threatened by Jesus.

They wonder, what will happen to them or their position as religious leaders, if
people continue to flock to Jesus? This self-interest creates a blind spot in them
and keeps them from seeing the good that Jesus is really doing, much less the
goodness in him as a healing life-giving person.

Self-interest also creates blindness in us. It has done this in our Church when we
refused to act openly and correctly about sexual abuse or some other harmful or
destructive behavior.

Self-interest can cause a supervisor or anyone in charge to refuse to listen to

criticism because it might call into question his or her competence. Yes, self-
interest creates a blind spot and this can keep us stuck in bad behavior.

Conclusion

Today Jesus is calling each of us to take the position of the man born blind and
admit our spiritual blindness or blind spots.
One of our Catholic scholars says that Jesus is setting up a contrast in this story
not between the physically blind and those who can see with their eyes.

Rather, the contrast is between those who know they can be blinded by
preconceptions, fear, and self-interest and those who claim to see and don’t.
POSTED BY FATHER NICHOLAS AMATO AT 10:24 AM