Suppose we put ourselves in the place of the man born blind. Imagine what it would be like to live life in darkness and then suddenly see the light of day, colors we’d never seen before, the faces of the people from whom we begged every day for years. Of a sudden we can put faces to voices. We are bewildered by the wonder of it all. Imagine what must it have been like to see for the first time the faces of our mother and father? What must it have been like? We’d be overwhelmed and bewildered by the wonder of it all. We’d want to say thank you to the stranger who muddied our eyes and sent us to wash in Siloam. We’d be totally confused by the unwillingness of the religious authorities to accept our cure. Like the man in the gospel we’d say, ‘Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.’ We’d wonder, what do these people have against this good man? Why can’t they see this is the work of God? Coming face to face with the one who gave us sight we too would believe he is the Son of Man and worship him and follow him.
There was a song out years ago titled, “You light up my life” The song is about someone whose life is transformed by someone who loves them and gives new meaning to their lonely life.
Some of the words go – ‘so many nights I sit by my window waiting for someone to sing me his song and now you’ve come along and you light up my life, you give me hope to carry on, you light up my life.’
Jesus says to all of us, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” meaning: all who are blind will be able to see, so long as I am the light they seek. His invitation is, Come, then, and receive the light, so that you may be able to see. Paul tells us we are all children of light, a light that produces every kind of goodness, justice and truth.
In these final weeks of Lent, walking in the light of Christ and freed from any blindness may we look into the hearts of all those who come into our lives and see them as brothers and sisters worthy of our love and respect.
Paul calls his Ephesians children of a “light” that produces every kind of goodness, justice, and truth. Christ himself embodies the promise of the psalm: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
Our Lenten prayer and sacrifice should serve to take away our blindness so that we can look into the hearts of others and love them as brothers and sisters, always remembering the words of Christ, ‘as often as you did these things to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’
This Homily entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2014.
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