Fourt Sunday of Lent Jn 9,1-9.13-17.34-38

The proverb says, “It is better to light a candle than to say it is dark.” Lent is the time to transform darkness into light in our surroundings and inside.
It is not a phrase that our God is a seeing God. He sees the whole man. He also sees the heart. He created man to see. He gave us flesh eyes, the light of the Spirit, and the power of the heart. Who cannot see is poor. Who does not want to see is regrettable.
The Gospel represents a different attitude towards blindness. Jesus helps the blind from birth. “He spit on the ground, made the saliva mud, rubbed his eyes with the mud, and said to him,” Go, wash in the Siloe pond. ” Then the Pharisees said, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But you say, ‘We see.’ So your sin remains ”(John 9:41).

Even today the light of Jesus is to bring the light of Jesus into the darkness of sin that attacks us. John did not mark the name of the healed, but marked all the essential things that happened around the healing. Healing has gradation, escalation. It is certain that Jesus is not only concerned with bodily vision, but also with spiritual sight, faith. The event of healing is the continuity of one thing to another. Blind would not see if he did not meet Jesus. Jesus teaches; “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8: 12). Jesus Himself comes to the blind. Nobody tells him what to do. But if one did not do what Jesus commanded him to “Go, wash in the pond of Siloed” (John 9: 7), he would not be healed. God requires cooperation from a free and intellectually gifted person. Blind washed and saw. He cleared his eyes from the mud and saw. God created man not just for this world. The goal is much larger. Our homeland is in heaven. It is necessary to fulfill the mission, the role on earth to obtain eternal reward, the goal, to see God face to face. Heading to this vision it is necessary to bear witness, to prove ourselves, to earn eternal reward.
Cured of blindness, he must bear witness. Though he does not know who it was that gave him sight, he says clearly, fearlessly, “He is a prophet” (John 9:17). It reveals the mystery of Jesus.
In healed ripens faith in Him who has power over the body. He becomes a witness. Parents are afraid of the enemies of Christ, the Pharisees. They do not know who has healed their son, but their faith is growing, although it is not like their son, so they say, “Ask him. He has his years to speak for himself ”(John 9:21).
Parents are afraid to confess what they already feel in their hearts. They are afraid of the power of the Pharisees, who could exclude them from the synagogue. It is true that they were not there when Jesus touched the sick eyes with the mud and preached to wash them. On the other hand, with healed faith, it increases. He has new experiences. He sees what he hasn’t seen so far. Therefore, he answers the Pharisees not only as a discoverer of new values, but also as one who wants everyone to be as happy as he is. But when he answers the question, he becomes not only a master of the word, but also a master of faith for those who testify of themselves as believers and who, although they see and have eyes healthy, their soul’s eyes are sick, unwilling, not knowing Messiah. “Why do you want to hear it again?” Do you also want to become his disciples? ”(John 9:27), we know that the blind also gains sight of faith. How about they want to silence him. Know from his words: “If he were not of God, he could not do anything like that” (Jn 9,33). The testimony of Jesus receives new graces, his faith grows. It grows despite the fact that parents’ fear is fulfilling. They drove the healed from the temple.
Jesus is coming again personally. He presents himself to the sick. He hears him in faith. The healer cooperates by saying, “I believe, Lord” and bowing to Jesus. The Pharisees watch what happens to the healed. They suspect that he will meet Jesus. They want to destroy Jesus. And Jesus reveals their anger, sin: “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But you say, ‘We see.’ So your sin remains ”(John 9:41).

Reflecting the healing of the blind from birth is a challenge to embrace Christ as a light for the eyes of faith. In baptism began the life of faith. The awareness of the importance of baptism for faith brings a revival, the light for a new vision in both natural and supernatural life. To consciously and voluntarily renounce sin and choose good, it heals, heals, brings to life the values ​​of the unknown, and hope grows in us. Receiving Christ as a doctor who brings light, and light is life, is more than the light of the sun. Receiving Christ in the heart is a challenge to be receptive to God’s voice. God speaks to us. God is looking at us. God is waiting for our response. Lent is a convenient time to explore God’s will, what God wants from us, what we are obliged to give to God. God wants His light, which heals, heals, gives life, to penetrate our whole interior and all our natural and supernatural life. Even a slight improvement, recovery of faith will enrich. Whoever wants and allows God to penetrate His light is the small beginning of change, the beginning of great things that enrich, give meaning to life, bring to values ​​unknown.
 In his commentary on the healing of the blind from the birth of Jesus, Ephesus says that it was not the Siloed pond that gave the blind sight, but Jesus, whose blind man obeyed and fulfilled what he asked of him. It is not enough for us not only to be baptized but to cooperate, after baptism, with the graces God gives through the Holy Spirit in the Church.
God heals not only the sick eyes of the body, but whoever cooperates with the grace given by God heals the eyes of the soul. Not only does one realize that God has helped him in natural things, illness, misfortune, failure, he also changes his relationship with spiritual values ​​and becomes twice as rich. They can say after personal knowledge that not only are the eyes of the body healthy, but the eyes of the soul must also be used. He who stubbornly accepts God’s help as a Pharisee and remains opposed to him must realize that Jesus is addressing him also: “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But you say, ‘We see.’ So your sin remains ”(John 9:41). Everyone builds our happiness. Not illness is a sign of sin, but a persistence in the hardness of the heart. Isn’t that our case? It is not enough only for the eyes of others to be a Christian, for mass … when our eyes of the soul cannot see for our sins. He who does not have the light of faith, hope and love in him is on the road that leads to death. God does not want the death of man, but to turn and live.

Every act, deed, manifestation of faith is an enrichment heading to God, eternal happiness.

Bruno Ferraro wrote: Many years ago, fleeing a terrible bully, several families found shelter in the wild Andes hills. Here they found a green valley and fertile ground beneath the five-thousand-meter-high peaks, and a creek passed through.
Over time, a strange disease began to spread among the hiding. Children were blinded first. Adults became their guides unless blind children were well oriented in the environment. So it happened that there was an unseen community. When the fourteenth generation saw no more, a seer came to that land. He realized that these blind people lead their simple, humble lives. He stayed between them, convinced that blindness did not hinder them at all. After a time of blindness, it began to hinder that this person could see. He decided to run. He did it.

It can be said that many find themselves in personal blindness. They raised their tribes in blindness. The fact that many do not see what God gives does not mean that it does not exist. God created man to conquer the world and to rule over the work of God and not to become a slave of God’s work that God created for man out of love for him. God has not ceased to love man. He puts on his eyes the “mud”, many values ​​of spirit, art, science, through which, when used correctly, one can acquire knowledge and consciousness of true happiness, freedom, wealth. But one must cooperate with God. The fulfillment of God’s will also include an appropriate, regular thanksgiving to God for His gifts. Every adult, free and reason-conscious person is then responsible for himself. This also obliges us.

If we have already visited one of the beautiful caves, we know that although we admire the limestone and aragonite works, we cannot live longer in a cave without light. And on the other hand, we realize that we can have everything in the world – comfort, wealth, fame, power – and it will not fill a person entirely. Perhaps, as long as he is still healthy, young and certainly only in this world. God wants us to live forever. Therefore, it reminds us of the care of the eyes of the soul. To look at the world not only through the eyes of the body. 

 

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