Pastor's Message
4th Sunday of Lent
"Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who loved her. Be joyful, all who were who were in mourning.” Isaiah 66.10-11
Today, we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) and Entrance Antiphon of the Mass exalts us to rejoice; “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who loved her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning.”
The question then becomes; Why Rejoice?
We rejoice because we are aware that the primary celebrations of our redemption are close at hand! The Solemn Act of God for Our Salvation, that is, Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, is near.
We rejoice also because we are aware of the new life, that Jesus brings us. We are eager to celebrate the festivities as adopted sons and daughters of God, through Christ Jesus.
This journey toward Easter is meant to be a time of instruction. And in this final phase towards Easter, beginning last Sunday, with the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan Woman, is a special moment in the revelation of Jesus to his disciples
Last Sunday Jesus revealed himself to us, as the source of the living water. Today, we are at the pool of Siloam, where He reveals, himself through the healing of the Man born blind, that He’s the Light of the World
The 1st reading, today takes us to Bethlehem and into the household of Jesse. Prophet Samuel has been sent by God to anoint David, the second King of Israel! The story is fascinating, because in it, it is revealed to human beings, how blind we humans sometimes can be! Jesse is blinded by culture and appearances! He expected his strong older sons to be anointed! He has a son, David, the “youngest,” and according, to him the least likely to be anointed. To him David is, “the other that is tending sheep.” However, for God; “He was his chosen one.” Human beings go by strengthens and power! God sees the Heart, “Not as Man sees does God see, … the Lord looks into heart!”
And Listen to the blindness in the Disciples, in the beginning of the Gospel reading; “Tell us Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his Parents, that He was blind?”
How many times we thought, calamities in the world or in peoples’ lives, were a consequence of Sin! Jesus’ answer is, “Neither he nor his Parent sinned; he is blind so that the Works of God might be made visible through Him.”
The restoration of the physical sight happens quickly; Jesus proclaims himself as the light of the world; He made clay, smeared it on the man and requests him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam; “He went, washed and begun to see.”
The story after the Miracle is a lengthy one. First, we realize that “the Man Born Blind” was more blind to the identity of Jesus than he was in physical blindness! He, too, like the Samaritan Woman had to make the Journey of Faith
In the 1st interrogation by the People, to the Man born blind, Jesus was just a miracle worker; “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it in my eyes and asked me to go and wash.”
In the 2nd Interrogation, the healed man proclaimed Jesus as a Prophet. Frustrated the Pharisees condemn him as “One born totally of born of sin,” and threw him out of their Synagogue. Jesus on hearing that the Man had been cast out, came to console a soul desperate for its Savior.
“Do you believe in the Son of God?” The man puzzled at the question, responded with a question of his own; “Who is he sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jesus, responded in a solemn and satisfying way; “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you!” The Man responded; “I do believe Lord.” His Journey of Faith was complete.
Doubted by friends and neighbors, abandoned by parents, questioned, insulted and condemned by the Pharisees, the Man born blind professed his Faith in Jesus; “Lord I believe,” and worshipped Him.
In Contrast, the Pharisee sank deeper and deeper in spiritual blindness to the condemnation by Jesus; “If you were blind, you would have no Sin; but now you say, we see, your Sin remains!”
Our Faith in Christ Jesus, hinges on his identity; He is the Son of God. †
