Open Our Eyes
March 10, 2024 4th Sunday Lent - 2nd Scrutiny
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
Close your eyes. Keep them closed.
Have you ever wondered about what it might be like to be born blind? Listen closely. What do you hear? Can you picture in your mind what is going on around you? If this were the 9:30 crying babies Mass you might have imagined that you are in a nursery with of dozens of babies surrounding you.
(Keep your eyes closed.) Even if you cannot focus on anything and are considered legally blind, you might still be able to discern light and dark, shapes and movement. A priest friend of mine has been losing more and more of his eyesight for the last several years told me recently that he can no longer recognize anyone a few feet away from him, but knows who and what things are because of the sound of their voice or the position or movement of objects in front of him.
Now, imagine that you are the blind man alongside the road in today’s Gospel. You hear the noise of the crowd, but you probably have no idea of what is going on or who is there – at first. Then you hear, probably faintly at first, a name.
Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is coming.
Even those who are losing or have lost their eyesight most likely can still imagine what things might look like. But what if you had never seen ANYTHING ever before? How can someone recognize something that’s “beyond our senses” without the help of someone who can help us understand what we cannot see? How do you describe “blue” to someone who has never seen color? Or “clouds” to someone who cannot see the shadows cast by a blocked sun?
And so, I wonder what the man born blind thought when his eyes were opened by Jesus for the first time? What are the images that are coming to YOUR mind right now?
You can open your eyes now. All four Gospels have a story of Jesus healing the blind. Luke’s version has the blind man, upon hearing that it is Jesus coming up the road, crying out to him, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.” Matthew’s version has two blind men calling out to him; Mark’s version even gives the man a name: Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus.
But John’s version begins with a very important point – the man in this story was blind from birth. For Jews, blindness was more than just a physical ailment. They believed that physical or other infirmities were linked to sin and if you suffered from blindness or other affliction it must be because you or your parents had sinned. Since it would be pretty difficult for him to have done something BEFORE he was born, it would seem obvious that the man’s PARENTS must have done something particularly wicked. It would be natural for his disciples to ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
I wonder, what did the man born blind think? Did he accuse his parents of doing something evil that caused him to be born blind? Or was it his grandparents? Did he think there was something “wrong” with him spiritually, since he must have been rejected by God because he was born blind? Whose fault was it, anyway?
That is why today’s Gospel, the 2nd Scrutiny is especially significant to those candidates and elect seeking entry into the Church this Easter, to those returning from the Men’s ACTS retreat this weekend – to anyone who questions “why do bad things happen to good people?”
Physically, we are all born blind. It takes time for our vision to develop. At first, everything is blurry, like a camera that’s out of focus. It takes about a week before a baby begins to learn how to see, and then it’s only objects within a foot or so of its face – which just so happens to be about the distance between a loving mother and her nursing child. It takes about 6 months before a child can see with clarity at a distance.
Understanding what they see, however, takes a lifetime. It is said that we are born with only two innate fears – the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. The rest are learned responses. (By the way, it’s not until they’re about 2 years old before children begin to do dangerous things without encouragement, especially when they’re told not to.)
Just as we are born physically blind, we are also born spiritually blind. And just as we are born with an innate sense of fear for falling and loud noises, we are born with an innate spiritual longing for God. But like learning to see with our eyes, it takes time for us to learn how to see with our hearts.
It can be challenging to overcome our spiritual blindness, and not just because our parents were evil or we are evil, but because there are many outside forces at work to keep us from God. God wants us to see, to be able to draw close to Him. And so in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches us to see spiritually with our hearts through the physical healing of a man born blind.
Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him."
Jesus begins simple enough – he points out to his disciples that the evils that we experience in life are not because WE are evil, but often it is in how we deal with the evils we encounter that we can make the works of God visible to others. Physical blindness is temporary and limited to the short time we are on Earth; but we must overcome our spiritual blindness if we are to be able to “see” the Glory of God for eternity. We also see that re-enforced in the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Paul is commissioned by Jesus to remove the spiritual blindness of others by telling him:
I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you, to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated by faith in me.’ (Acts 26:17)
So Jesus begins with “healing” the physical blindness of the man born blind. Note that the man doesn’t ask to be healed. Why? Maybe it was because he didn’t think he was worthy to be healed; after all, he was born blind and like most Jews he probably believed that he didn’t deserve to be healed. Like many of us today.
But he must have had some hope – some spiritual desire – in his heart since he followed Jesus’ directions and allowed mud made from spit to be put upon his eyes, and then allowed himself to be led – remember, as yet he still couldn’t see – to the Pool of Siloam to wash. He had some faith, without even fully understanding what he believed. He washes at the Pool of Siloam, and the Church sees that washing as symbolic of the waters of Baptism and the beginning of his faith journey, just as our baptism is a beginning step in ours. And he experiences God’s mercy through both a physical AND a spiritual healing.
Now, he didn’t know who Jesus was, at first. He testifies before the Pharisees as to what he experienced, and then he questions them about how this man Jesus could do what he did for him if Jesus was a sinner, but the Pharisees cannot answer him. They reject his testimony and throw him out of the synagogue. But the eyes of his heart have been opened and so, when Jesus seeks him out, he is ready to see Jesus for who he is, the Son of God.
One final thought. In both this Gospel and last Sunday’s about the woman at the well, after Jesus reveals his divinity through word and action, the eyes of their hearts are opened and the people come to believe in him. The Pharisees however, whose physical eyes are open, refuse to see the wonders of God at work around them. And so we must ask ourselves – do we close our eyes to God at work in our lives? Are we blind to God and the wonders of His mercy? Do we WANT to see?
And so, let us pray: Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord – we want to see You.
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Open Our Eyes
Easter is Near
by Dcn. Bob Bonomi
If I said, “John 3:16”, most of you would probably know to what I was referring. Even those who are not particularly religious might know. It may be the best known of all quotes from the Gospels, if not the entire Bible. Up until a few years ago, you’d see it everywhere – on religious signs, on bumper stickers and even etched in the grease paint used to reduce glare under football players’ eyes.
John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
Today we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Lent, referred to as Laetáre Sunday – a time to “rejoice”. Laetáre Sunday, like its counterpart Gaudeté Sunday – “joyful” – during Advent, marks the half-way point in our penitential seasons and the rose-colored vestments that clergy wear are signs of joyous anticipation of the celebration coming in a couple of weeks. (Remember: Everyone knows / Clergy wear Rose / for only girls are pretty in Pink.)
Which brings us back to John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” In a sense, Jesus is a double gift. First, his life is a gift in showing us how to prepare ourselves for eternal life. Second, his death is a gift in redeeming us from ourselves – our sins. As St. Paul said to the Ephesians, we accept this gift of God’s grace to us through our Faith and belief in Jesus.
And although John 3:16 is a sign of God’s great gift to us of His son Jesus, I think we tend to skip over what Jesus says both before and after his famous quote. First he reveals to Nicodemus that he must be “lifted up” as the seraph serpent was, alluding to the necessity of his upcoming death on a cross, and he follows it with the sad statement that there will be people who will refuse to believe in him and his message and so condemn themselves to eternal darkness.
It is sad to say, but sometimes we can find darkness - comforting. I don’t mean the physical darkness that we need in order to sleep, but the spiritual darkness that blocks the desire to reach out for God.
We can get caught up in the glitz and glamour of the material world, but when that happens, the brightness of those lights fail to illuminate the soul. There remains a spiritual darkness that leads us away from God.
Nowhere did I find that expressed more clearly than when I looked up the quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson: “ 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” The sheer number of people who have taken exception to this quote, either because they never overcame the pain of the loss of a loved one through break-up or death, or because they were afraid of ever experiencing that pain, points to Jesus’ sad comment that “people preferred darkness to light”.
And yet, there is hope for all of us. There is joy in the world today. Even in a world of neon lights (or I guess that would be LED-colored ones today), true light and joy can still be found, if we would just open ourselves to the healing love that comes from living in the light of Jesus.
One final thought. Mental health professionals are quick to point out that the #1 illness we face today is loneliness and depression. Yet older adults – those who have experienced the joys and losses of life – are far less likely to feel depressed, are more likely to remember the joy they experienced in life, and more likely to live with hope for heaven. And while having a strong faith life is no guarantee that you won’t experience loss or loneliness, there is a guarantee that God will be there for you and with you. The light of Easter always follows the darkness of Good Friday.
So, as St. Paul said to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! … The Lord is near.” (Phil 4:4-5) Remember, Easter is just around the corner.