Fourth Sunday of Lent—Second Scrutiny
I remember the night pretty clearly: I was driving back to Sacred Heart Major Seminary from St. John the Evangelist parish in Fenton, where I was assigned as a transitional deacon. It was dark out, and a steady rain began as I merged onto MI-10, the Lodge. I suddenly noticed that, even just driving 57 miles per hour (with everyone flying by me, I might add) I couldn’t see the lines that separated each lane. I didn’t want to slow down and get run over, but I certainly wanted to stay in my own lane so I didn’t cause or get in an accident.
At that time of my life, I was the only one of my parents and my two sisters who didn’t have corrective lenses. But, when I finally made it safely home, I knew that I needed to at least get my eyes checked. When I went to the optometrist, and she started to put those different lenses over my eyes for the reading chart, I suddenly realized how fuzzy the world had been, and how I hadn’t really been able to see.
Our first reading and Gospel today give us an insight as to how God sees. When Samuel goes to anoint a new king, after Saul had disobeyed the Lord, Samuel is directed to Jesse’s sons. Samuel sees Eliab, the one he is sure is supposed to be king. But the Spirit of God tells him that Eliab is not God’s choice. And then Samuel goes through seven sons, but God does not choose any of them. Finally, the youngest, David, is called in from the fields and is anointed as the new king of Israel (though he doesn’t formally become king for quite a while). When Samuel wants to know why it was not Eliab, and likely why it was not the other sons, God tells Samuel, “‘Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance, but the LORD looks into the heart.’”
In our Gospel today, there’s a lot of seeing going on, but not all of it is true sight. We begin with the disciples who see a man blind from birth. When they look at him, they see a sinner, or at least the son of sinners. But then Jesus looks at the man, and sees, not sinfulness, but a man whose cure of blindness at the hands of Jesus will make manifest the work of God. Then the Pharisees see the man born blind, and they ask him about Jesus, whom they had also seen before. The Pharisees see the man, now cured, and still see a sinner. They look at Jesus as a horrible sinner who does work on the Sabbath. And the man himself, though his sight is given to him at once, gradually sees who Jesus is, as he first calls Jesus a man, and then a prophet, and then the Son of Man and Lord.
How easy it is to look upon failure or a lack of something as a curse. As Catholics we’re particularly proficient at seeing something bad happen and figure that God is somehow punishing us. Whether its an illness like cancer, or the loss of a job, or a troubled marriage, or whatever curse we feel we’re under, it’s easier to assume that God is, for one reason or another, punishing us for something we did, even if it was a long time ago.
And while there are sometimes bad consequences that follow from our bad choices, Jesus reminds us that what seems like a curse can truly be a way for the glory of God to shine forth. For years the man born blind and maybe his parents assumed they had done something wrong; many people saw it that way, including the Pharisees. But Jesus says that the man’s blindness was there so that he could be healed by Jesus and give glory to God. Sometimes, our maladies or negative circumstances are ways that we can draw closer to God and reorder our lives properly. Ironically, sometimes the bad stuff that happens can actually be a great blessing.
These elect that we have with us today: those who will be baptized, confirmed, and make their first Holy Communion, have been on a path from spiritual blindness to sight, a pilgrimage we’re all on in different ways, but a path for them which is leading to be able to see with the eyes of God. They began by inquiring about the faith, learning more about this man Jesus and His Body the Church, and why so many have joy who know Him. Then they were accepted as catechumens, those who are seeking to be joined to Jesus in a certain way, and to know and love Him better as they open the Word and see it active in their lives as Jesus who is The Prophet speaks for God as His Word. Then Bishop Boyea, in the name of Christ, chose them for the Easter Sacraments. As they continue today through the scrutinies where they are prayed for in a special way in these last weeks before Easter, they come to the sacraments so that they can profess Jesus as Lord, as God. They are like the man born blind who, after he was healed, spoke about Jesus as a man; who when questioned by the Pharisees called Jesus a prophet; and when asked by Jesus, professed Him as Lord, which is the title used for God.
These Elect challenge us to see with the eyes of God, as they are growing to do. They challenge us to approach the world with the sight of God, rather than putting people in the boxes that make us most comfortable and either accepting or rejecting them based on our criteria. What a tragedy and a true scandal it would be for those who have been baptized, who have been enlightened by Christ, to not see with the eyes of faith that we received in baptism. Look at other people, work, relaxation, and world situations with the eyes of God, so that we can look at what the world considers darkness, and bring the light of Christ.
