Search
-
March 25, 2017St. John told the story about the man born blind to make a point about how humans beings can be blind. The Pharisees are like us in so many ways. The people of Israel were in a tough spot and the Pharisees knew it. The Jews were captives of the Romans imprisoned in their own land. The Romans completely took over Israel during Jesus’ lifetime. Within 70 years of his birth, the Romans owned all the land in Israel, kicked most of the Jews out of their homeland and destroyed their temple and ancient way of life. Why? Partly, the Romans thought the Jews were lazy because they wouldn’t work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees, for their part, wanted to protect the identity and religious faith of the Jewish people by reinforcing the holiness of the Sabbath which requires NO WORK! Then along came this Galilean rabbi, who intentionally healed on the Sabbath. Why intentionally provoke the leadership of Israel?
When Jesus healed the man born blind, there were at least some there who knew that he was blind from birth. His parents, questioned by the Pharisees, certainly knew. If the Pharisees acknowledged that Jesus healed him on the Sabbath that would mean that Jesus was legitimate and that work could be done on the Sabbath. If the Pharisees kept calling Jesus a fraud, that would hurt their own credibility, because at least some knew that the healing had actually occurred. In their minds, they were protecting their own leadership, the people of Israel and their way of life. What else can you do when the dominant culture in which you live tries to undermine your sense of identity and faith?
The most important aspect of faith is that it trains our eyes to see beyond the limits of religious practice to the reality of God’s presence. You have to be trained to see. When infants are born, they are unable to focus their eyes. At birth, a baby’s vision is not nearly as good as a one-year old child. All the visual stimulation we take for granted is flooding into their eyes but their brains can’t process the information. They can’t really focus further than 8-10 inches beyond their nose, the distance of their mom and dad’s faces. They can’t coordinate the movement of their eyeballs or their hand eye coordination. By the time that they are crawling, they are learning to coordinate what they see with what they do. Learning to see continues throughout our lives.
Adults born blind have the same problem. If their eyesight becomes functional during their adult years, the visual stimulation is overwhelming. We don’t see merely on a physical level. Our brains need to learn how to see. In some sense, we see what we are trained to see. We sometimes see only what we expect to or want to see. That is our problem and the problem that the Pharisees face in today’s gospel.
The Gospel of John teaches that Jesus is the light of the world. We cannot see reality unless we see it as he trains us to see. Jesus said, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” As the man born blind came to faith, Jesus’ critics became increasingly blinded by their own limited agenda. The Jesus of the Fourth Gospel portrays himself as the vine without which we would be groundless and barren. He is also the bread of life. He is the good shepherd. He is the gate. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
We live in a time when there appears to be a lack of vision. We cannot focus, like infants, more than 8-10 inches beyond our little noses. We can be just as passionate, loud and short-sighted as are the Pharisees in this story. At the heart of the story of the man born blind is not the Pharisees, however. The heart of the story is God’s concern, on the Sabbath, for the well-being of one of the least of his creation, a poor, blind beggar. Real vision is to see and love who and what the Creator sees and loves. Lent is a time when we try to once again learn how to focus and see clearly. Lent is the time when we refocus on prayer, on moderating our own desires through fasting, and reaching out to others through the gift of alms. It helps us learn once again to see the world around us clearly.
