Fourth Sunday of Lent

It's Sunday!
April 3 - Fourth Sunday of Lent


There is a story of two men beside a beautiful lake, glinting in the morning sunshine. "Terrific day!" remarks one, "the water is just barely moving." "Water?" says the other, "that's what I wash in." "The sky is a beautiful blue," continues the first man, "it's reflected in the lake." " Blue?" asks the other man, "what's that ? And what is a 'lake' - "like a basin of water?" "The waves are coming in gently to the shore," continues the first man, "driven before the breeze." "Breeze" I understand," his friend replies, "but what are 'waves?'...


In this example, we are talking of someone who can see and someone blind from birth. And what a difference! This Sunday we find a similar theme: seeing and blindness, light and darkness.
This concept, however, is not to be found directly in the First Reading but it is there in part. The Lord sends Samuel to anoint a successor to the ill-fated Saul, first king of Israel, and Samuel looks approvingly at the fine young sons of a man called Jesse, concluding from the beginning that the one he is seeking is surely one of these. But he is wrong. He is seeing and judging without understanding the Lord's plans. As we are talking at this time of year of the admission of candidates to Baptism, there is a reference to the call of God for them and for each of us. Were we not all blind at our Baptism, knowing usually only how to cry as the cold water annoyed us? It took a long time for us to get an appreciation of God's special call and millions today are even less- appreciative and - as we have several times reminded ourselves -don't even know the date of their Baptism, not to talk of its meaning. In our case, of course, we have had the extra divine call to the re-affirmation of our Baptismal consecration when we became members of the Institute. And even there, how blind we frequently were, how slow to understand the goodness of God, "calling us out of (relative) darkness into His marvelous light." Yes, we had the special light to follow the choice of the Master for us - not a casual one but all forming part of an incredible plan going back not just to the day we came into the world but ... to all eternity! As long as God is God, He always wanted us to be called to human life, to be called to divine life in our Baptism and, finally, to reinforce that call with our entrance into the Institute.


The Responsorial Psalm ties in nicely with the general theme. We are not left to walk " in the valley of darkness" but have the constant care of our Good Shepherd - Jesus Christ. We are not always aware of this unceasing presence of the Lord in our lives - he is close to us, we are less close to him. Often it takes an effort even to turn to him for a short prayer, a brief acknowledgment. As a result we may act without invoking his guidance and that leads to more darkness as we wander down the wrong path through life.


St. Paul, in the Second Reading repeats the same theme. His converts were truly in 'darkness" - a special darkness in their case filled with pagan, demonic influences,. But now the light has shone into their lives and their duty is clear: show their new light in the way they live and (of course) in the way they try to enlighten others - light always shines backwards and forwards. Regretfully, today's baptized people -and, sadly, millions of Catholics - have rejected their original nlightenment and gone after very inadequate and artificial illumination. And modern- day apostles - priests and deacons – find themselves overwhelmed and perplexed: how can we get these people to understand that they are going nowhere but at the same time avoid alienating them? There is so little time to do this enlightening: ten minutes on Sundays with some people still coming to church as the celebrant is concluding his remarks and catechetical instruction outside the Mass depending so much on the parents. Clearly, we who are enlightened without any merit of ours, must try to encourage our less-fervent friends and neighbors to see that the Church makes sense and their way of life simply doesn't.


The Gospel is a beautiful story of the Lord's compassion but also of the very intelligent individual he heals. Far from being scared by the interrogation of the religious leaders, the former blind man challenges them. This was risky. They held the people in a species of bondage and already had threatened to throw out of the synagogue - our modern "excommunication" - anyone who acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ, the Anointed One, the Prophet. The former blind man had his priorities right: "I have been healed, this man did it and this is how he did it."


Good for him! How great it would be if all Catholics today were equally convinced! Unfortunately, the really blind men in this Gospel are the religious leaders who insist that they can see. And the great story concludes with the blind man falling down to worship the Lord - reminds us of the behavior of the tenth leper!