FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
(Samuel 16:1-6.10-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41)
If you go to Florence, you'll want to see Michelangelo's
statue of David. It is perhaps the most celebrated work of art in this city of
fine art. Looking at its magnificence, you ask why students of the Bible,
including Michelangelo, have considered David such a great figure. Did he not
commit adultery and then arrange the death of his lover's husband? That’s
right; David was a great sinner. But he was also a brave warrior who conquered
many lands for Israel. This is not the only or the greatest reason to engrave
his figure in marble. David was also a person of great faith. From youth
David's heart belonged to God. He never abandoned the worship of God to flirt
with other gods. Rather, on several occasions he demonstrated the depth of his
faith. The gospel today traces the faith journey of another biblical character,
the man born blind.
First, we should ask: what is faith? Is it simply the belief
in a spiritual realm beyond what our eyes can see? This is not sufficient because
faith demands allegiance to one of the various spirits found in Scripture. Is
faith then the effort to do everything you can for other people? This sounds
more like love springing from true faith. Faith, at least for us Christians, is
trust in God as our creator and savior. Furthermore, faith sees Jesus Christ as
the "light of the world"; that is, the means through which God's love
is revealed.
The man born blind is not born with faith; he gradually
acquires it. His first step to faith is to acknowledge Jesus as his benefactor.
He was steeped in the darkness of blindness when Jesus covered his eyes with
mud and sent him to the pool to wash. He now testifies to the Pharisees that
Jesus was responsible for his sight. He's like other people who move toward belief
in God after coming in touch with a saint.
The faith of the man takes a step forward when he recognizes
Jesus as a prophet. Reflecting on receiving his sight, the man intuits that
Jesus was called by God. Many people in the world today see Jesus as a prophet.
They respect him like another Lincoln, Gandhi, or Martin Luther King. However, they
do not feel a need to submit themselves to a prophet with mind and heart as is
necessary to God. Of course, to the
Pharisees Jesus is not a prophet. They
call him "a sinner." For this reason, they cast out from the
synagogue the man who has come to see with more clarity than ever.
Now the man born blind comes to full sight. When Jesus
identifies himself as the Son of man, that is, the one to whom God has given
dominion over the world, the man worships him. Faith in Jesus recognizes him as
the one deserving of complete trust because he saved the world from sin and
death. The gospel adroitly shows this coming to faith by juxtaposing it with the
loss of faith by the Pharisees. The man born in physical darkness now
spiritually sees twenty-twenty by putting faith in Jesus. Meanwhile the
Pharisees, who had physical sight at birth, now walk in spiritual darkness because
they do not believe in Jesus.
When we speak of faith in Jesus as the light of the world,
we should have in mind a strong and intense illumination. Like the laser, Jesus
cures us of our moral failings. Like a beacon, he guides us around the rocks
and vortices of life to salvation. Like the sun, he provides us with life; that
is, eternal life.
