20200322
WALKING
IN THE LIGHT OF CHRIST
22 March, 2020, Sunday, 4th
Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Rose or Violet.
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First reading
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David is anointed by Samuel
The Lord said to
Samuel, ‘Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of
Bethlehem, for I have chosen myself a king among his sons.’ When Samuel
arrived, he caught sight of Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed
stands there before him,’ but the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Take no notice of his
appearance or his height, for I have rejected him: God does not see as man
sees: man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.’ Jesse
presented his seven sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not
chosen these.’ He then asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ He
answered, ‘There is still one left, the youngest; he is out looking after the
sheep.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send for him; we will not sit down to eat
until he comes.’ Jesse had him sent for, a boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes
and pleasant bearing. The Lord said, ‘Come, anoint him, for this is the one.’
At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him where he stood with his
brothers; and the spirit of the Lord seized on David and stayed with him from
that day on.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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The
Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.
The
Lord is my shepherd;
there
is nothing I shall want.
Fresh
and green are the pastures
where
he gives me repose.
Near
restful waters he leads me,
to
revive my drooping spirit.
The
Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.
He
guides me along the right path;
he
is true to his name.
If I
should walk in the valley of darkness
no
evil would I fear.
You
are there with your crook and your staff;
with
these you give me comfort.
The
Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.
You
have prepared a banquet for me
in
the sight of my foes.
My
head you have anointed with oil;
my
cup is overflowing.
The
Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.
Surely
goodness and kindness shall follow me
all
the days of my life.
In
the Lord’s own house shall I dwell
for
ever and ever.
The
Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.
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Second reading
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Anything exposed by the
light will turn into light
You were darkness
once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light, for the
effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth.
Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, having nothing to do with the
futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast. The things which are
done in secret are things that people are ashamed even to speak of; but
anything exposed by the light will be illuminated and anything illuminated
turns into light. That is why it is said:
Wake
up from your sleep,
rise
from the dead,
and
Christ will shine on you.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Glory
to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
I am
the light of the world, says the Lord;
whoever
follows me will have the light of life.
Glory
to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
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Gospel
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The blind man went off and washed
himself, and came away with his sight restored
As Jesus went
along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him,
‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?’
‘Neither he nor his parents sinned,’ Jesus answered ‘he was born blind so that
the works of God might be displayed in him.
‘As
long as the day lasts
I
must carry out the work of the one who sent me;
the
night will soon be here when no one can work.
As
long as I am in the world
I am
the light of the world.’
Having said this,
he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of
the blind man, and said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (a name
that means ‘sent’). So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away
with his sight restored.
His
neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, ‘Isn’t this the
man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘Yes, it is the same one.’ Others
said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’ The man himself said, ‘I am the man.’ So
they said to him, ‘Then how do your eyes come to be open?’ ‘The man called
Jesus’ he answered ‘made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, “Go
and wash at Siloam”; so I went, and when I washed I could see.’ They asked,
‘Where is he?’ ‘I don’t know’ he answered.
They
brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had been a sabbath day
when Jesus made the paste and opened the man’s eyes, so when the Pharisees
asked him how he had come to see, he said, ‘He put a paste on my eyes, and I
washed, and I can see.’ Then some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man cannot be
from God: he does not keep the sabbath.’ Others said, ‘How could a sinner
produce signs like this?’ And there was disagreement among them. So they spoke
to the blind man again, ‘What have you to say about him yourself, now that he
has opened your eyes?’ ‘He is a prophet’ replied the man. However, the Jews
would not believe that the man had been blind and had gained his sight, without
first sending for his parents and asking them, ‘Is this man really your son who
you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?’ His
parents answered, ‘We know he is our son and we know he was born blind, but we
do not know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his eyes. He is old
enough: let him speak for himself.’ His parents spoke like this out of fear of
the Jews, who had already agreed to expel from the synagogue anyone who should
acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. This was why his parents said, ‘He is old
enough; ask him.’
So
the Jews again sent for the man and said to him, ‘Give glory to God! For our
part, we know that this man is a sinner.’ The man answered, ‘I don’t know if he
is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see.’ They said to him,
‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He replied, ‘I have told
you once and you wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you
want to become his disciples too?’ At this they hurled abuse at him: ‘You can
be his disciple,’ they said ‘we are disciples of Moses: we know that God spoke
to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ The man
replied, ‘Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you
don’t know where he comes from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but
God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world
began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind;
if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing.’ ‘Are you trying to
teach us,’ they replied ‘and you a sinner through and through, since you were
born!’ And they drove him away.
Jesus
heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, ‘Do you
believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘tell me who he is so that I
may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to
you.’ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him.
Jesus
said:
‘It
is for judgement
that
I have come into this world,
so
that those without sight may see
and
those with sight turn blind.’
Hearing
this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, ‘We are not blind, surely?’
Jesus replied:
‘Blind?
If you were,
you
would not be guilty,
but
since you say, “We see,”
your
guilt remains.’
WALKING IN THE
LIGHT OF CHRIST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 Sm 16:1, 6-7, 10-13; EpH 5:8-14; JN 9:1-41 (or >< 9:1, 6-9, 13-17,
34-38)]
Many are living in
darkness because of blindness. This is the state of the world today. When the
world abandons God, no longer believes in Him, but believes only in itself,
this leads to moral relativism and confusion. We cannot tell what is male
or female, what is right and what is wrong. In one country recently, a
law was passed declaring abortion to be a health issue and not one of killing
an innocent life. This is an amoral world we are living in today.
We are not even speaking of morality or immorality, since the world is
blind. We cannot see the light anymore. In rejecting God, man is blinded
by his sins, his selfishness, his ignorance and his fears. Sin closes our
mind to truth and our heart to love.
Sin leads to suffering. In the gospel, when the disciples
asked whether the blindness of the man was caused by his sins or that of his
parents, the Lord said, neither, but it was to bring forth the glory of
God. Whilst it is true that not all suffering is due to the effects of
our sins or the sins of our parents and society, much of our suffering is the
consequence of man’s failure to live in truth and walk in love.
Regardless of whether it is the consequence of man’s moral weakness or the
imperfection of nature, God wants to use our imperfections and illnesses
for His greater glory. Our suffering is meant to purify us in
love and grow in virtue. Most of all, it is an invitation to share in His
redemptive suffering. In God’s divine providence, everything works for
our good, even in this Covid-19 virus pandemic. The Lord will use this
virus to purify the hearts of man and help him to come to terms with the
reality of death and man’s helplessness. Only then, will we come to
realize our finiteness and mortality. We are not gods!
In the gospel, Christ
proclaims Himself as the light of the world. Jesus said, “As long as the day lasts I
must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here
when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the
world.” Night refers to the darkness of sin and falsehood whilst day
refers to Christ who is the light of the world. Jesus is the Light of the
World because by His very life, He shows us the ultimate meaning of life, our
identity as God’s children and our purpose on this earth which is to share in
His life and love so that we can reach our final destiny with Him. Apart
from Christ, life has no meaning. Only in Christ’s suffering, death and
resurrection do the riddles of suffering and death make sense. “In him
was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (Jn 1:4f)
Unfortunately, the
gospel is not accepted because of fear and willful blindness. The religious leaders during the
time of Jesus did not believe, not because of ignorance but because they chose
to reject Jesus deliberately. They sought all ways to deny that the man
was truly born blind or that Jesus was the one who healed him. And even
if He did, Jesus could not be a good and holy man since He broke the Sabbath
Law. As the Lord remarked, “the light has come into the world, and people
loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all
who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds
may not be exposed.” (Jn 3:19f) Secondly, they failed to see that
the good works Jesus did came from God. They forgot that charity towards
neighbour and love of God is the essence of the Law. Instead of giving
praise to God for the good works performed by the Lord, they told the man to
expose Jesus as a fraud. “Give glory to God! For our part, we know that
this man is a sinner.” In their understanding, to give praise to God was
to deny His glory and mercy working in and through Jesus. Indeed, this is
the situation of the world today. Rationalism and secularism deny the
works of God in our midst. Instead of giving praise to God, we find all
reasons to deny Him the praise and give glory to man.
How do we then allow
ourselves to be enlightened by Christ the Light of the World? The
ordinary way to be removed from our blindness to the truth is through the
sacrament of baptism which brings about the forgiveness of sins. In the gospel, Jesus healed the eyes of
the blind man through the use of mud and the washing of water at the pool of
Siloam. This act of using earthly elements to heal is reminiscent of how
He healed the deaf man in the gospel with saliva and mud, and how Naaman the
Syrian Commander was cleansed of leprosy when he bathed in the river
Jordan. It is significant that the Sacrament of Baptism in the early days
was called the Enlightenment because when sins are taken away through the washing
of waters at baptism, man can see clearly the truth and live in the
truth. In this way, Christ becomes the Living Water and the Light of the
world. It is noteworthy that this happened at the pool of Siloam because
the word means “sent”. Jesus is the One sent by the Father to enlighten
the minds of man by removing our darkness.
As a consequence, the
blind man came to have faith in the Lord. Baptism brings about healing of
the soul. Physical healing is only the first step in the process for a
holistic healing. Jesus
was not just interested in providing the man with physical sight but to grant
Him spiritual sight. Truly, many of us only seek physical healing, but
after being healed, we continue to live the sinful way of life.
Eventually, we will fall sick again. What is equally important for
healing is also spiritual healing so that we will not fall into sin
again. Only spiritual sight can bring us true peace and joy.
We must choose what is
even greater than physical healing. To the blind man, He gave him the gift of
physical sight. We can imagine how happy he must have been to be able to
see for the first time in his life. Before then, he could only sense by
touch, hearing and smell. Now all these came alive through the recovery
of his sight. It must have been such an amazing, heartfelt
experience. But greater than physical sight was the grace to see Jesus
and recognize Him as His savior, His Lord and His life. After this
encounter, he bowed down, fell at the feet of our Lord in worship. “The man
said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him.” He had encountered God His
creator, face to face. Between our natural life and supernatural life,
our faith and friendship with the Lord, do we place our spiritual sight as the
more important?
Faith is also a growing
process. So, too, is baptism. Faith is a gift from God. God is the one who takes the
initiative. We have Jesus coming to the man, not the man seeking out
Jesus in the first place. Faith begins when a man takes the decision to
obey. When the Lord asked the blind man to go to the pool to wash
himself, he went immediately, unlike Naaman. Only because of faith and
obedience was the man healed. But he still did not know who Jesus
was. It was under interrogation and pressure that he came to discover for
himself who this man, Jesus, was. Having recovered his eyesight, he must
now choose.
We know our faith is
mature only when we are willing to stand up for Jesus. The man who was healed was ready to
vouch for Jesus in spite of the opposition from the religious
authorities. Even his parents were afraid to stand up for Jesus in spite
of the fact that they saw their son healed. True faith makes us stand up
for what we believe and who we believe. If we are ashamed of our Lord and
the gospel, then we are no real disciples of His. Unfortunately, this is
the case among many of our Catholics. They do not defend their beliefs
and convictions before the world. They deny Jesus in their words and
deeds!
In the final analysis,
faith is expressed in following Jesus.
When the man was expelled from the Old Temple of God; Jesus, the New Temple of
God took him in. The man could now see Jesus, recognize Him to be a
prophet, the Son of Man and finally His divinity, and proclaim Him as the Son
of God. He worshipped Him and followed Him completely. He came to
realize that Jesus is the way to life. When he was expelled from the
Temple, Jesus once again reached out to him. By so doing, the man came to
see even more clearly who Jesus was. So, too, when we make a
decision to follow Jesus, and open ourselves up to Him, He will lead us to know
Him more and more. Accepting Jesus is more than just getting
baptized.
It means that we must
now walk in the light after our Lord. This
is what St Paul urges us to do in the second reading. We are called to be
disciples, not just converts. “Be like children of light, for the effects
of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth. Try to
discover what the Lord wants of you, having nothing to do with the futile works
of darkness but exposing them by contrast.”
To walk in the light
means to evaluate everything from the perspective of the eternal and the wisdom
of God, with the scriptures and the teachings of the Church as our guide. To walk in the light means to
debunk the illusive and seductive offers of the world that value pleasure,
prestige, and power over relationships and love. We must put
on Christ, a new way of thinking and acting. By our word and example, we
must be the light of the world by exposing falsehood and moral
relativism. We must be like the blind man in defending the Christian
principles of righteous and honest living. Indeed, only by defending our
faith and bearing witness to Him, can our faith grow and be strengthened.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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