Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: Scrutiny Year A

The Spiritual Journey On Full Display

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: Scrutiny Year A

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, March 10, 2024

In the Bible, blindness is a symbol of spiritual blindness. It is a metaphor for someone’s incapacity and inability to see what truly matters. It is used as a spiritual metaphor to describe the spiritual condition of someone who is either unable or unwilling to perceive divine revelation. Blindness is a symbolism of sin. The opening line of today’s Gospel (John 9:1-41) says, “As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.” Truly, the man’s problem is a physical condition, and Jesus did restore his sight. But look at blindness in the context of the Bible. As I said earlier, it is often used as a symbol of spiritual blindness. What does sin do to us? A lot! But one thing it does is that it fuddles and obscures our consciousness. It distorts our vision of things. In the physical, we might be functioning very well, let’s say in the professional, political, economic order etc. But if we are trapped in sin, we are blind to the most important realities, we are blind in terms of the right direction for our lives. You can be doing well and flourishing in the worldly sense, but you are just staggering around like a drift wood on a moving sea— with no particular direction. At the deeper level, you are simply lost. By the way, the man blind from birth is everyone of us. In Original Sin, we are all born blind. It means that long before we begin to make any conscious decisions and choices, even before we reach the age of accountability, we are born into a dysfunctional world. How’s this possible? Is this believable? Well, studies show that some people are born already addicted to hard drugs— heroin, crack cocaine and so on. Such persons haven’t yet made any conscious moral choice, nevertheless, they are born with addiction. This is how it is with all of  us. We are all born blind. We are born into a world that is marked by cruelty, violence, hatred and everything else that bedevils us. 

Upon meeting the man blind from birth, Jesus demonstrates his opposition to his condition, he shows he is the enemy of this blindness. If you notice, the Lord did not wait for the blind man to seek him out or to beg for the restoration of his sight. From his lips we hear, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” You can read this as follows: “If you sincerely allow me into your life, I am going to be your light. I will lead you and guide you.” And from the beginning of his Gospel, John says, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5), which means that Jesus comes into our world as the light meant to illumine eyes blinded by sin. After declaring who he is in relation to darkness, Jesus does something very weird. He spits on the ground, makes a mud paste by mixing his saliva and the clay soil. After that he rubs the paste on the blind man’s eyes and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.” What does Siloam mean? As John notes, it means Sent. Very often in John’s Gospel, Jesus is referred to as “the One who was sent.” To his Father, he himself refers to as “the One who sent me.” Where am I going with this? Being immersed in the pool is evocative of Baptism. We know that by baptism, we are immersed in Christ, the One who is sent by the Father. We are washed clean of the blindness of sin and are now able to see. This is what the sacraments of the Church, especially Baptism, does for us. We are saved and salved (healed) through them. They enable us to see what really matters. 

At this point, the man blind from birth recovers his sight. Glory be to God! But as the man returns home, how do people respond? They are divided in their view of who he is. Some say, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?” (John 9:8). Others say, “It is.” But others say, “No, he just looks like him.” They are confused about his actual identity. But read their reaction with a deeper spiritual vision. When we are immersed in Christ, when Jesus salves and saves us, when the Transfigured One transforms us, we are no longer the same person we were before. Something beyond human comprehension happens to us. We are changed. We are transformed. We are metamorphosed, both at the spiritual level and at the physical. Something hard to explain happens to us. We look different. We act different. People who used to know you can barely recognize us. And even if they do, they may not understand what happened to you. Your language has changed. Your attitude has changed. Your lifestyle has changed. Your worldview has changed. You are no more bitter. You are now a more loving, compassionate and patient person. You no longer speak ill of others or wish ill to them. You look for something good about them to appreciate. And you wish them well and pray for them, even as they continue to hate and ridicule you. This is the actual transformation of our lives when we come to Jesus. Meanwhile, as they debate among themselves about whether he was the one or someone that looks like him, the once blind man from birth said, “ego eimi,” which literally means “I am”. If you are a careful reader of John, you cannot possibly miss his response. Why? Because “ego eimi” is the great name of God. When God came to Moses and was sending him to Pharaoh to let the enslaved ancient Israelite to go, Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them? (Exodus 3:13) God replies, “This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”  (Exodus 3:14). And throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus uses that little phrase, “Ego eimi” (I am). “I am the bread of life.” “Ego eimi” “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” I am the Gate.” Jesus is saying that he is in himself God’s own presence to the human race. It also means that when you are baptized, when you are immersed in Christ, when you are grafted into Christ, when you are salved and saved by Christ and you conform to him, you become another Christ. Are you confused or in doubt? Read St. Paul. In his letter, he said, “It is no longer I who live; but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). So, the man born blind, once he has been christified through Baptism and the sacraments, can rightly say just like his Master, ‘ego eimi.” 

As the neighbors of the man born blind wrestled with his new reality, the Pharisees entered the scene. As Jesus’ enemy number one, they refused to handle the truth. They refused to give credit to whom credit is due. They invited the salved and saved man, harassed him, ridiculed him, questioned his authenticity and the legitimacy of his utterance. They also accused Jesus of being a bad man whom God cannot listen to. A great miracle has just happened, but rather than give God the glory, they trash and undermine the healer— Jesus. I tell you, there are a lot of people out there deeply invested in blindness. That means their means of making money, acquiring political power, increasing their honor and fame, intensifying their pleasure and whatever else they do, is dependent upon the fact that most people are not spiritually awake, that most people are spiritually blind. Because they are thriving due to the spiritual blindness of many people, they would not want someone who has been liberated to emerge. They don’t want someone who sees the truth and what really matters. Why? Because he is going to cause them a lot of trouble. So, if you have started the spiritual journey, if your life is truly hidden in Christ, you can say, “ego eimi.” You can rightly say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ Jesus who is living in me.” But after that, don’t forget to stay awake at all times. Be alert and vigilant, and know that the devil is prowling like a roaring lion, seeking for someone to devour. Take this to the bank: you will be opposed, not only by those in the world, but sometimes by your fellow brothers and sisters in the church. The more Christlike you are, the more you walk the spiritual path, the more you will be opposed by all those people who are invested in blindness. Don’t be naive as to believe that you are going to be loved by all. No! That’s why Jesus says, “Be innocent as a dove but as clever as serpents” (Matthew 10:16b). 

After enduring the mockery of the Pharisees, the man born blind testifies, “This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him. It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of the person born blind. If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.” Upon hearing his powerful testimony, the Pharisees accused him of being born totally in sin and immediately threw him out. Alone in the world once again, Jesus finds him and asks him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man responds, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him.” The Lord says, you are looking at him. And the man makes one of the great confessions of faith in the New Testament: “I do believe, Lord.”  Then  we hear, “he worships him.” Meaning, he acknowledges Jesus’ divinity. This is the whole spiritual life on full display. We are born with the blindness of Original Sin. Then we are brought to vision through the immersion of Baptism and other sacraments. They brought us change that is real. We become Alter Christus— another Christ. As we live this changed and transformed life, we face opposition. But despite these oppositions, we continue to walk the spiritual path. We continue to evangelize the Lordship of Jesus. And even as the world opposes us, rejects us in every turn, even as we lose friends and members of family who no longer want to associate with us, as they are throwing us out of their lives, we refuse to bulge. Why? Because we know that it is only in his light that we are able to see. 

God bless you!