Lesson from Fr. Paulus | Bringing the Truth to Light

For the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we recall Our Lord's healing of a blind man that brought many more things to light than just one man's eyesight. It teaches us how blind we can be to what's going on. The Lord wants to cure us of the worst blindness: a spiritual one. Through faith in the Son of man, we receive a deeper interior vision beyond our physical sight thanks to Christ, the light of the world.

In the Gospel, the Lord heals a blind man and helps to see with an entirely new level of light, the light of truth. This light shines on everyone involved in the story, and that light is Christ.

The man born blind not only received the gift of sight, but he also received an opportunity to see that Jesus had been sent by the Father and had the power of God to heal. He saw a miracle happen. The disciples thought his blindness was due to either his sin or the sin of his parents. Our Lord corrected them. His healing was to show God at work.

The man born blind wanted to get on with his life, but his neighbors insisted on taking him to the Pharisees because Jesus had healed him on the Sabbath. Our Lord had performed a miracle on the Sabbath. If God had not wanted to work miracles on the Sabbath, he would not have healed the blind man. Yet he did.

The Pharisees showed how blind they were to the will of God. They wanted to condemn Jesus as a sinner breaking the Sabbath because that was the way they saw the world. Their interpretation of the Law of Moses.

The man born blind could not deny what was right in front of his face. At this point, the Pharisees had decided to cast out anyone who said Jesus was the Messiah. He didn't claim Jesus was the Messiah, but when he presented irrefutable logic to the Pharisees: "We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him ... If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything."

His healing was to show God working, but the Pharisees couldn't accept that and cast him out. Jesus went looking for him and gave him the opportunity to believe in him as the Messiah, and he accepted wholeheartedly.

Our Lord had not just restored his sight; he'd given him the light to see salvation at his doorstep and the need to give witness to it. Christ showed the Pharisees that they weren't blind, a motive for innocence for their attitude. They chose not to accept what they saw.