1st Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
2nd Reading: Ephesians 5: 8-14
Gospel: John 9: 1-41
One day, a man went to visit a church. He arrived early, parked his car, and got out. Another car pulled up near him and the driver told him, “I always park there.” “You took my place.”
The visitor went inside for Sunday School, found an empty seat, and sat down. A lady from the church approached him and stated, “that’s my seat.” “You took my place.” The visitor was somewhat distressed by this rude welcome, but said nothing.
After Sunday school, the visitor went into the church sanctuary and sat down. Another parishioner walked up to him and said, “that’s where I always sit.” “You took my place.” The visitor was even more troubled by this treatment, but still said nothing.
Later, as the congregation was praying for Christ to dwell with them, the visitor stood and his appearance began to change. Horrible scars became visible on his hands and his sandaled feet. Someone from the congregation noticed him and called out, “what happened to you.”
The visitor answered, “I took your place.”
I never get tired of this story for it reminds us how we can be at times when looking at others. Do we really look at others and see them for who they are? Do we really know there stories: Why we see them only once in a while at mass or why they seldom receive the Eucharist, why they never get involved in the parish life? Do we really know what is on their minds, or for that matter, what is in their hearts? Do we tend to judge?
This is what is happening in our gospel story for today. The Jews were blind for not seeing the great healing of the blind man by Jesus. The Pharisees believed that Jesus broke the Jewish law by healing on the Sabbath which made him a sinner and the blind man, according to Jewish culture, was blind because of sin or was blind because he was born of sinful parents. Jesus’ disciples thought the same.
You would think that the parents of the healed blind man would step up to defend Jesus and their own son but they were afraid of being banned from the synagogue for seeing Jesus as the Christ and saying that is was Christ who healed their son.
We at times, can relate to the parents of the healed blind man. How many times have we stepped back when hearing others talking about Jesus in fear of being challenged with questions about our own faith?
How many times have we allowed our humanness to overtake our spiritual lives causing our own blindness?
One thing is clear in this gospel story. The blind man’s faith came gradually. He knew that Jesus healed him but he is trying to understand who Jesus is. Maybe that person we tried to judge was in somewhat the same situation. We need to understand that we are gradually coming to know Jesus. That is the beauty of our Christian faith.
The more we know Jesus, the more we are drawn to him, the more we search out to be like him, the more we want to live as he lived here on earth, and the more we want to love as he loves.
We sometimes think we know what is best but are we always right or are we blinded by what we can’t see or understand? Samuel in our first reading thought that he knew who was to be the king of the Jews. However, he saw what he could see physically. He judged by appearance only and in turn, God reminded him so.
We will remain spiritually blind if we hold onto earthly things that keep us from reaching out to God and that prevent us from living a life in Jesus Christ.
There was this little child who would not let go of the pieces of shells that she collected from the beach that lay clinched in her hands. While standing on the shore the little child, still clinching on to those pieces of shells, looked up and saw a beautiful starfish floating on the top of the water just out of her reach. She looked at her parents who in turn gave the nod of approval to wade in the water to get that beautiful starfish. The child stepped into the water and immediately turned around and set foot on the shore.
The parents went over to the child and told her to try again. “You can do it” they said. “Get that beautiful starfish.” So the child entered the water again wading knee deep only to turn around again to seek dry land. The parents, concerned for their little child and knowing that she really wanted that starfish, gave her words of encouragement saying, ” We have faith in you, we know you can do it. Get that beautiful starfish.”
All of a sudden, she raised her head, looked at her parents and released those broken pieces of shell from her hands letting them fall to the shore. The little child went back into the water going waste deep and grabbed that beautiful starfish and came back to shore to show her parents that she did it. She got that beautiful starfish.
What can we learn from this little child on a beach? Our lives are very similar. When we are blind, we hold onto those broken pieces of our human life: our judging others, our envy, our greed, our selfishness, our idea that we know what is best for others when we can’t even figure out what is best for us, giving in to the temptations of sin. Then our lives are like those broken pieces of shells fragmented pieces that cannot make a complete shell.
When we allow the gift of God’s Spirit through Jesus Christ to enter our hearts, we can now open our eyes and see and our lives start to become whole. We can now reach for our savior, who heals our blindness to allow us to see and to be the children of the light not of the darkness and he gives us Himself for strength to stay in this light.
St. Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians, : “you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” We are to live seeing in the light of Jesus Christ and being light to others in a world that seems to be full of darkness. We are being charged to be light for others by good works and by loving others as we love God and ourselves.
We have been given many opportunities to live the gospel message. Just look around you and around the world, ones that need help; People who need the comfort of a smile to ward off the pain of illness or a friendly visit to those confined in a prison or jail, or people who need the basic necessities of life because of natural disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, or those homeless sleeping under our local freeways and those who hunger for a bite to eat coming to our local food bank, to those who suffer because of the atrocities of war and injustice.
Father Rick mentioned in his homily last week about how the woman at the well initially saw only physical water and not the living water-Jesus Christ. When we open our eyes and see with deep conviction the love shared by our God our thirst and our sight remains in Jesus Christ. We see Jesus in others. We see the equality of God’s image and likeness in all humanity. We see Him.
My brothers and sisters, now that we can see, I would like to leave you with this final thought: An English football player named Michael Bridges wrote: “When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our heart, the circle of creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open, and love steps forth to heal everything in sight.” How far can we see?