God Getting Dirty Hands

Fourth Sunday of Lent–Second Scrutiny

The Strouse House

    Though we didn’t have a farm growing up, we did live in the country.  There were farms not far from our property, including pigs and cows (which made for interesting smells in the summer time).  We understood, early on, where meat came from.  We did have a little garden in the summer to grow corn, tomatoes, and zucchini.  And we would be responsible for planting the seeds, by hand, watering the ground, and picking the weeds.  We weren’t afraid of getting a little dirty, unlike some city folk I have known who imagine that food just magically appears at the grocery store each week.
    Our Lord wasn’t afraid of getting a little dirty as He healed the man who was born blind.  Jesus spits on the ground, makes a kind of mud, and then puts it on the eye of the man, and tells him to wash the mud off in the Pool of Siloam.  And in the first reading, God chooses David to be the new king.  Now, the reading describes David as “ruddy,” which I have heard numerous times, but had to look up, as it’s not a word we often use.  Ruddy means “a healthy, red color.”  The reading also describes David as handsome, but notes that he worked with sheep.  Sheep are not the cleanest of animals, nor the brightest.  So David, even with his handsome, healthy appearance, also probably had a bit of dirt on him.
    God uses earthy things to communicate.  Dylan, in a few weeks you will be washed, not in the Pool of Siloam, but in the font of baptism.  You, like David, will be anointed with oil on your head.  And while both things come from the earth, and spiritual reality will be accomplished through the earthly substances.  
    Through the water being poured on your head, God will remake you, just as He remade the man born blind.  Water is already a natural means of cleansing, but through the water blessed at the Easter Vigil, you will receive cleansing from original sin and adoption into God’s family.  It may feel no different from other water, but through this holy water, infused with the Holy Spirit, you will die with Christ and rise with Him to new life.  
    Likewise with the oil.  The oil, the Sacred Chrism, is just a mixture of olive oil and a special perfume.  But because of its consecration by Bishop Boyea, it will have the ability to give you the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that rushed upon David at his anointing by Samuel.  It will smell different than the oil that you cook with, but it will look the same.  Still, by that oil, you will become an anointed of God, with the ability to offer the sacrifice of your life to God as a priest in the common priesthood of the baptized; the ability to speak for God as a prophet in union with the Church; and the ability to govern yourself to follow God’s law as a king in the kingdom of Christ the High King.  All of that will be accomplished through simple, earthly things which we dedicate to God for His use with our cooperation.
    Today, in the second scrutiny, you will again ask God to prepare you for these earthly and heavenly realities mingled together.  We will pray for you that God will continue to remove any blindness from your life to the sins that hold you bound now, but from which you will be freed at baptism.  We will continue to pray that God will make you ready to rise from the dead, so that “‘Christ [may] give you light.’”  

    And all of that will culminate in your reception of Holy Communion.  God will receive the simple bread and wine that we offer, and, through the power of the Holy Spirit and my ordained priestly ministry, will transform it in the Body and Blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.  That spiritual sustenance will give you what you need to follow Christ each day and continue on your pilgrimage to heaven, along with the rest of us.  Through your reception of Holy Communion, you will be closer to Christ than you could be in any other way on earth, in anticipation of being united to Him in heaven.  Again, God will use ordinary, earthly things to communicate His life, His grace, to us, as He does with all the sacraments.
    Our response, then, is to walk in the light of truth and be faithful to Him, even when we are challenged by others, as the man born blind was by the Pharisees.  Those who are not enlightened might see just simple water, or oil, or bread and wine.  But you will know that the Holy Spirit will be present in each, and that the bread and wine will be the Body and Blood of the Savior.  And your job, as with all of us who are confirmed, will be to help others to also see the spiritual realities that are communicated through earthly things.  You will use that new life, the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual sustenance of the Eucharist to help you help others know how God works among us, even now.  May God, through these scrutinies, help you to see more clearly in preparation for your baptism, confirmation, and reception of the Holy Eucharist.  And we all also receive clearer vision, and give you an example of those who were blind, but now see, and share the good news of life in Christ.