Fourth Sunday of Lent–Second Scrutiny
This question came to mind when reflecting on the healing of the man born blind, which we heard today in the Gospel. We don’t know exactly how old the man was. But he was old enough to give testimony to the Pharisees, which likely means that he was probably at least in adolescence. But his parents were still alive, so he wasn’t exceedingly old. For argument’s sake, let’s say he was around 20 or 25 years old. So, why did it take 20 to 25 years for God to heal him? Jesus said, “it is so that the works of God may be made visible through him.”
When we think about how things should go, we do so with our own vantage point and our own assumptions of how reality should be. We can be like Samuel who presumes that God’s reasoning will be like ours. But as the choice of King David showed, and as God Himself told Samuel, He does not see things the same ways we do. Samuel thought that the best looking son should be king. But God saw David’s heart, how devoted David was to God, and so chose the least-likely son of Jesse to be king.
If you were to ask a seminarian, he would probably gladly eliminate a year, or two, or six from seminary formation, which can be academically rigorous and often pushes a man beyond what he thinks he can do. But, of course, in the eight to ten long years of formation, the seminarian learns very important theology and how to best serve the people of God, as well as how to celebrate the sacraments. If you would have asked me in my second of eight years of seminary, I probably would have said I was ready enough to become a priest. But I learned a lot about God, the Church, pastoral guidance, and how to be a good priest in the six years that followed. Not every part of seminary was enjoyable, and sometimes not everything was even useful, but it helped form me into the priest I am today.
It seems odd to think that it was not better for God to heal the man born blind earlier. But who knows how receptive the man would have been to believe in Jesus later if God had healed the blind man earlier. But because the healing happened at that point, not only did the blind man come to believe in Jesus, but it also helped the disciples to believe that Jesus is God.
Sometimes we might wonder about God’s timing. We might think that something should have happened earlier, or that a different result should have happened. And maybe in our mind our reasoning even makes sense. But God sometimes sees things differently than we do. And while it may seem cruel at times, God’s ways are always for our salvation and holiness and are made out of love. God cannot do otherwise than act out of love, because God is love. Anything else would be a contradiction of God’s nature.
Admittedly, this takes great trust and faith. Because God is infinite and we are finite, we only get glimpses into His will, permissive or directive. But when we trust in the love of God and His plan, we can accept timing that doesn’t make sense to us. Sometimes the good is simply the growth in virtue that can only come through struggle. A child often thinks that a parent is cruel when the child has to eat vegetables instead of ice cream. But it’s not cruel, but rather helps the child eat food that will help it develop healthily. We are God’s children, and our loving Father sometime wants us to develop differently than we want to develop. Sometimes we would rather not grow in virtue, but God wants us to grow in virtue. So we are allowed to go through crucibles which help us, by God’s grace, to grow in virtue and further our trust in God.
My dear elect: as we celebrate the second scrutiny, you might have asked yourself on this or other occasions why God allowed you to wait until now to discover the truth and become a child of God and open your pathway to heaven. I wish I could give you each a detailed answer, but what I can say is that, in Divine Providence, now was the perfect time so that the works of God might be made visible through you. You see, when a person is baptized, especially adults, the faith of other Catholics is reinvigorated. And perhaps other non-Catholics might decide to investigate becoming Catholic more because they see you becoming Catholic. Who knows? Maybe someone here needed your witness, your desire for baptism, to bolster his or her own faith. If you would have come to faith earlier, perhaps that person would have lost out on what he or she needed. But only God knows that. We can only trust that, for you, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation, as St. Paul says.
 |
| Bl. Solanus Casey |
