Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A

“I Do Believe, Lord.”

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, March 19, 2023

The story of the man born blind is the summary of the spiritual life on full display. His story is the story of the human race. What happened to him is what happened to all of us. He is every one of us because in original sin we all are born blind. How come? In the Bible, blindness is a symbolism of sin. It is used as a spiritual metaphor to describe the spiritual condition of someone who is unable to perceive divine revelation. 

In our Gospel for today (John 9:1-41), John says “As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth.” As the Savior of the world, Jesus responds by doing something strange and weird: he makes a mud paste and rubs it on the blind man’s eyes. After that, Jesus tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. When the man comes back able to see, his neighbors and the Pharisees struggle to recognize him. Confused and mystified, some of them wonder if it is the same man, maybe it is just someone that looks like him. Others cautiously say it is the man born blind. Now, what is staring us in the face in this biblical narrative is that once a person puts on the Lord Jesus Christ, they are changed in every aspect of their life. When you allow the Lord of life to reign supreme in your life, people who used to know you will wonder and ask “What happened to him?” “Are you sure she is okay?” They will think you are odd and different from what you used to be. But don’t worry about being called odd, weird, strange, medieval, out-fashion and old-fashion. Centuries ago, one of our ancestors in faith, the great St. Paul writes, “Do not conform yourself to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2).  

After Jesus has healed the man and restored his sight, you might think that the story is over. In fact, in John’s narrative, the story takes a dramatic turn. The Pharisees question the healed man because Jesus healed him on a Sabbath day. In an attempt to undermine the person and ministry of Jesus, the Pharisees state, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.” They are basically telling the formerly blind man that the man who cured him is using a dark and demonic power. But the man isn’t having any of their arguments. Beautifully he throws a question to them, “How can a sinful man do such things?” His question injects division among them. In their desperate effort to subvert and compromise the work of Jesus, the Pharisees ask the man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?” (Jn. 9:17). He replies, “He is a prophet.” Still not convinced, the Pharisees involve his parents. When his parents refused to be dragged in, they said to the formerly blind man, “Give God the praise! We know that this man is a sinner.” In his response, the healed man notes cleverly, “I do not know if he is a sinner. But one thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” Amazing words! In those words, he states the simple spiritual fact, that we come to vision through Jesus Christ. 

But why did the Pharisees use every trick to undermine, ridicule, and impede what Jesus did for this man who was born blind? Why are they attributing this miracle to dark powers? The clue might be found from the very beginning of the story. At the beginning, Jesus’ disciples had asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” That is, who is responsible for his predicament? Can we blame him? Can we blame his parents, his family, his ancestors, his lineage, past or present generation? The disciples are looking for a scapegoat whom they can blame. The Pharisees are also playing the same game. They see themselves as disciples of Moses and as the good ones. Are we totally free from this behavior? No! Sometimes even without knowing it, we define ourselves by pointing out someone who is outside our group, someone who is worthy of blame, someone shameful. By restoring this man’s sight, Jesus does the following: one, he absolves him of being the cause of his blindness; two, he restores him back into the human community. The Lord wants him involved and fully alive. Three, Jesus mocks the attribution of misfortune to personal sin. Lastly, in a phenomenal fashion, he announces the arrival of the Kingdom of God. Like the disciples, the Pharisees wanted the healed man blamed and excluded, but the Messiah who has come to gather the tribes, heals the man so that his expulsion and exclusion from the community will end. 

In furtherance of their effort to exclude the man born blind from the community, the Pharisees threw him out for refusing to accept their conclusion regarding Jesus: that he is a sinner and not from God. Having been thrown out, Jesus locates him and asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He responds, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Upon realizing that the man who restored his sight is the Son of Man, he declares, “I do believe, Lord.” And immediately he worships him. Whenever we recite the Nicene Creed or the Apostles Creed, we declare, affirm, and state our faith in God the Father, in God the Son, and in God the Holy Spirit. We unapologetically say that we believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Like the Samaritans, we categorically say that Jesus is “truly the Savior of the world” (John 4:42b). The challenge now is to do every day what the man born blind did when he came to the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of Man— that is, to worship him. Speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus says, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.” What does it mean to worship? It is to put every ounce of your trust in the Lord. It is to de-center your ego and re-center it on Christ. To worship is to make every aspect of one’s life all about Jesus. 

God bless you!