4th Sunday of
Lent
Cycle B – Scrutiny
What would it be like to
be born blind? What would life be like if we never had experienced light, with
nothing to compare the darkness to?
We equate darkness with
evil. We call Satan the Prince of Darkness, and we fear the dark. Because we
can see we feel uncomfortable in the dark. We fear the unknown, we fear what we
cannot control. We’re afraid we’ll stumble and fall in the dark. Darkness is
frightening for us only because we know the difference between light and
darkness. If we were born blind we would never have experienced light, so
darkness would hold no fear for us. For one born blind, who has never
experienced the light, stumbling and falling is a natural thing. Relying on the
help of others is a requirement for survival.
This gospel begins with
Jesus’ own disciples asking a question based upon a belief all Jews had at the
time – that physical weakness and disease meant you or your family were steeped
in sin. If you were a sinner God punished you with infirmity. If you were
righteous you were healthy, wealthy and wise. Everybody believed this: the
Pharisees did, the disciples did, and the blind man himself did.
The blind man could not
enter the temple. Everybody said he shouldn’t be there, and he himself thought
he shouldn’t be there. He also thought he was unworthy to be in the presence of
God, just because he was blind. He was reduced to begging at the door. The
people who passed him every day saw him as unworthy, beneath them, worthless to
God and man. And so he saw himself as unworthy and worthless. How could he ever
become worthy? How could he ever come in out of the darkness and be included
among the seeing?
The saddest thing about
the blind man is that he bought into his culture’s prejudices and allowed them
to make him feel less about himself, to alienate himself from God and his
community. Even today, we can allow outside influences to keep us from God. We
can beat ourselves up so much that we actually stay away from God. How wretched
you must feel to keep yourself from God. Have you ever not come to Mass because
you felt unworthy? Or stayed away because you were not in the “right frame of mind”
to receive the Eucharist; that you just didn’t think you could come to Mass
with all those people there and try to pretend that everything was ok? Why just
go through the motions?
Do you think that you
shouldn’t come to Mass if you haven’t exactly been living a perfect Christian
life lately? I mean, why add one more hypocrite to the mix? Do you think that
you have to have it all together in order to worship the Lord? I’m not perfect,
so I’ll stay away. Does Jesus really only call the righteous? If that were the
case there’d be no one here. It’s sort of like saying that I’m starving, so I
really shouldn’t come to the banquet. The very thing you think you should avoid
is the thing you really need. Sometimes we blind ourselves to what we’re really
doing here.
It’s ironic that the best
way to become worthy of the Eucharist is to experience the Eucharist. None of
us can ever make ourselves worthy of being here. If blindness is equated with
sinfulness, then we’re all born blind, aren’t we? Only God can make us worthy,
just by willing it so. So we have a choice, to beat ourselves up for not being
worthy or to accept the grace of God that allows us to see. To exclude
ourselves from the banquet or to humbly accept the invitation.
Today we hear a story
that closely parallels those of our elect who are here with us this morning.
Like the blind man, they’re on the outside looking in. Not really sure what
they’re seeing. Jesus calls them forth. He makes them uncomfortable at times
and calls them to the waters. They do not know the way, so others need to help
them get there .When their eyes are opened, they still are not sure exactly who
Jesus is, even when he is right in front of them. They come up against
opposition. The entrenched prejudices of others try to derail their journey.
Sometimes they are thrown out. Sometimes others try to keep them in their
places. Finally, Jesus comes to them in the light and they recognize him for
who he is. They have become his disciples.
It’s funny, isn’t it, that the ones who thought they
were worthy – the Pharisees – were the ones that Jesus said were blind. Their
sin was their prejudice against people like the blind man, people they thought
were sinners. They could not see their own shortcomings, and that we’re all
blind in one way or another. And I am blind about many, many things. I am blind
to the plight of the poor because I have never gone hungry in my life. I am
blind to prejudice because I have never really experienced it personally. I am
blind to the hurts suffered by other people because I am so focused on my own.
I guess in many ways we’re
all Pharisees; we’re the good church going folks who think we have all the
answers. We’re the ones who go along with the conventional wisdom of our day,
blinded to how we are actually making things worse in our ignorance.
This morning we are celebrating the second scrutiny
for our elect. We’re not here to scrutinize them. They’re here to scrutinize
themselves. We all need to scrutinize ourselves. That scrutiny can be painful,
but it must be undertaken with open eyes. Only then can we remove the blindness
from our hearts. Blindness to our own sinfulness, and blindness to the needs of
others, no matter how sinful they have been.
In many ways these elect
see more than we do. They hunger for the light that we take so easily for
granted, and they don’t have all the barnacles we good Pharisees have built up
on our carcasses over time. But just as they have needed our help to see from
time to time, we too can draw on their light as we all stumble together towards
our Lord.
Open my eyes, Lord. Help me to see your face… in
everyone. Open my eyes, Lord. Help me to see.
Very True
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