Fourth Sunday of Lent–Second Scrutiny
I give real credit to those who use contacts. I don’t think I’ll ever be a contacts guy because I hate the idea of touching my eyes. I don’t know why I have this phobia, but one of the most sickening things for me in movies is when someone gets their eye poked or damaged or even removed! I see pictures of people having eye surgery and it just makes me sick to my stomach!!
But, if we are honest, we need eye transplants. Our eyes do not work as they are supposed to work. They receive the light of the sun, but do they receive the light of God? Just as our eyes need the light of the sun (s-u-n) to see our world, we need the light of the Son (S-o-n) to see as God sees. Even Samuel, one of God’s greatest prophets, didn’t fully see by the light of God because he couldn’t see God’s choice for the new king of Israel. Only after God enlightened Samuel did Samuel understand that David was to be the new king, even though David was not considered to be much by his family.
So, too, the man born blind was able to tell who Jesus was, even without following Him, because Jesus cured Him. The Pharisees were closed off to the Light of Christ and so they could not see, even when it was right in front of their faces, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Of course, even the blind man needs some help in recognizing just who Jesus is, because Jesus has to reveal Himself as the Messiah. But as soon as that comes to light, the man born blind believes.
Today we’ll pray again for our Elect, that they might see with the light of the Son of God. We will pray that they will be freed from being blind to truth, and seeing false values and lies. And this freedom from lies will happen through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. But we also need to pray for ourselves. We also need the Spirit of Truth to give us new eyes to see as God sees. What a great gift to be able to see that way. How differently would we treat each other if, when we saw a person in our work, on the street, and even in our homes, with the eyes of God! What a difference that would make in our life and in theirs!!
As much as it makes me a little queasy just to think about it, we need to pop out our eyes that see from a worldly point of view, and pop in eyes that only are work with the Light of Christ. At the Easter Vigil I will sing “The Light of Christ” as that one Paschal Candle illumines the darkness of the night, showing us in visible form how Christ is the Light of the World who dispels the darkness. In these next few weeks as we prepare for the Easter Vigil, that Vigil of Vigils, may our eyes be more attuned to the only light that we truly need: the Light of Christ.