Jesus heals the man born blind - Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A
Sunday
Gospel Reflection: From darkness to light
As the Church marks the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Fr Edmund
Power, OSB, offers this reflection on “From darkness to light”
By Father Edmund Power, OSB
Between the Samaritan woman of last Sunday and Lazarus of
next, we contemplate today the second of the three symbolic figures of the
Lenten and baptismal journey, namely the man born blind. The account in John 9
is, after the Passion itself, the longest continuous narrative in the Gospels.
Given that the whole chapter turns on literal seeing and on
its deeper meaning, a transformation from blindness to sight to insight, it is
suggestive that the text opens with the apparently simple statement, as
He passed by, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. The very first seeing is
that of Jesus: the Lord sees and contemplates us before we can ever hope to see
Him. And what does He see? A young man: he must be young because his parents
are still alive and have to insist that he is old enough to answer for himself.
He must have suffered considerably: living on the margins, assumed to be a
sinner even by the disciples of Jesus, and dependent on the charity of others.
But he is intelligent; he doesn’t seek attention; he is impatient of
insincerity; he tells his story with simplicity and precision; he is also a
little impulsive. In him, Jesus will break the confining logic of retribution
in which suffering must be read as punishment for sin.
The symbolic journey of this young man is a map of the
Christian life of conversion. The seemingly disgusting gesture of Jesus,
spitting into the dust and applying the mud to the man’s eyes, images the
creation itself, when the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground (Gen
2:7). Then the blind man is sent to the (baptismal) waters of Siloam and
receives his physical sight. Now the process of his moral and spiritual
transformation begins, his growth in courage and essentiality. Recognizing the
factual truth of what has happened, he begins to understand a deeper truth that
blocks him from tolerating insincerity, procrastination, and arrogant malice:
in fact, he is beginning to know at first hand the Truth itself (I am the
way, the truth and the life, Jn 14:6).
His growth in courage is notable. He doesn’t hide who he
is: I am the man (Jn 9:9). His understanding of Jesus
increases: starting from the man called Jesus (Jn 9:11), he
moves to proclaiming, He is a prophet (Jn 9:17). And he
arrives at the strength to confront the religious authorities, offering a pithy
and sarcastic little homily, that infuriates them. The price he pays for his
incipient conversion to Jesus is excommunication: they cast him
out (Jn 9:34).
The suffering of the moment, however, leads to the
definitive encounter with Jesus who asks him, Do you believe in the Son
of man? (Jn 9:35). And he replies, Lord, I believe; and he
worshipped Him (Jn 9:38).
This courageous and sharp young man is a symbol of every
Christian on the baptismal, paschal journey, who, seen first by God, abandons
the darkness gaining sight and insight, and illuminated by the Light of
the world (Jn 8:12), renders witness and adores.
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