IV Sunday of Lent:[A]: I Sam
16:1b, 6-7, 10-13; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41
Introduction: On this
Laetare (4th) Sunday of Lent the Holy Mother Church exalts us to be joyful
because, Christ our Shepherd-King comes to us with power, majesty and dominion
in a special way in order to cure us of both the physical and spiritual
blindness that prevent us from living our lives to its fullest potential. As
the anointed one from the Davidic lineage Christ assures us his flock by his
gratuitous saving help that though we are often assailed by fears and
misgivings in this world of darkness, He, our Shepherd-King and the second
David lights up our ways and leads us to his Kingdom unblemished.
Scripture Lessons: In today's Old Testament reading Samuel
anoints David with oil. Over the young man's head, the prophet pours a horn of
oil - and the spirit of the Lord rushes upon David. The Gospel shows Jesus
using his saliva and clay to make a rough and ready ointment. He anoints a
blind man and the man washes, he suddenly sees.
The
lessons which we must learn from this man include that the man was obedient to
the instruction or injunction given to him: “Go wash in the pool of Siloam,”
just as Naaman the Syrian was, though, after much argument and persuasion (II
Kg 5: 1-15), and as Samuel obeyed God’s command to go to the house of Jesse to
anoint the Shepherd-King. The blind man did not mince words there but simply
obeyed what Christ asked him to do. Of course, he got his healing immediately.
Many of us are so stubborn that we do not obey the commands of Christ our
anointed Shepherd-King yet, we want to be liberated.
The next lesson is that we must be consistent with our
words, faith, convictions, and the truth. In spite of all the quizzing and
intimidation of the Pharisees the man remained truthful and firm without caving
in or denying that it was Christ that healed him. Instead, he insisted: “The
man called Jesus…said to me go and wash at Siloam; so I went, and when I washed
I could see…He is a prophet!” According to St. John Chrysostom: “The the
Pharisees cast him out of the Temple ; but the
Lord of the Temple
we experience Jesus as the Light of the
World. What does light do? It dispels darkness; it makes us recognise
possibilities. In the context of the gospel of today, the light helps us
recognise God in person of Jesus. Paul
warns us to avoid the darkness of sin that we might walk more clearly in the
light of Christ (Eph. 5:8-12). So my dear brethren, as we continue our journey
this Lenten season, we must not allow any blind spot to blur our vision of what
God is doing for us, offering us, and requiring of us? We must continue to say
of our Shepherd-King as the Psalmist: “The lord is my Shepherd (and King);
there is nothing I shall want” (Ps. 22:1)!
Joke: A blind man is
walking down the street with his guide dog one day. They come to a busy
intersection and the dog, ignoring the high volume of traffic zooming by on the
street, leads the blind man right out into the thick of the traffic. This
is followed by the screech of tires as panicked drivers try desperately not to
run the pair down. Horns blaring, the blind man and the dog finally reach
the safety of the sidewalk on the other side of the street, and the blind man
pulls a cookie out of his coat pocket, which he offers to the dog.
A passerby,
having observed the near fatal incident, can't control his amazement and says
to the blind man, "Why on earth are you rewarding your dog with a
cookie? He nearly got you killed!" The blind man turns partially in
his direction and replies, "To find out where his head is, so I can kick
his rear end!"
Life
messages: 1)
Try to remove the root causes of our blindness: namely,
self-centeredness, greed, anger, hatred, prejudice, jealousy, addiction to evil
habits and hardness of heart.
2) Acknowledge
our own blindness and come to the presence of light of the World. Obey his commands,
and instructions and let his wonders work in and around us.
3) We
need to allow Jesus to heal our spiritual blindness. We all have blind-spots -- in our
marriages, our parenting, our work habits, and our personalities.
We often wish to remain in the dark, preferring darkness
to light. Even practicing Christians are blind to the poverty, injustice and
pain around them. Let us remember, however, that Jesus wants to
heal our blind-spots.
Introduction: Fourth Sunday of Lent
Message: Samuel does not see as God sees in the choice of
David, who is anointed with oil. As
Jesus cures the blind man, so too are we brought from darkness into light
through the grace of baptism.
Saints and Events in this week:
2-Second-Wednesday-Saint Francis of Paola, hermit; 4-Fourth-Friday-Saint
Isidore, bishop, doctor of the Church; 5-Fifth-Saturday-Saint Vincent Ferrer,
priest;
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