HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A. (6)

HOMILY FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR A.

THEME: THE MAN BORN BLIND.

BY: Fr. Jude Nnadi.

Readings: 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7,10-13; Ephesians 5: 8-14; John 9:1- 41

“As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam (which means Sent). So, he went and washed, and came back able to see. His neighbors asked him, “How were your eyes opened?” He replied, “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees who asked him: What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes? He said, “He is a prophet.” Then they threw him out. When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “Who is he Sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him” (Jn 9).

Brothers and sisters, our evangelist John, has a collection only of seven miracles performed by Jesus in his gospel. These miracles he called “signs” so that the reader does not stop at the face level of them but may make sincere effort to discover there further hidden meaning. The hidden meaning of this stupendous text of the man born blind is clearly visible in three components of the story.

The first two components are obvious and fundamental: light and water. These are divine symbols par excellence. Jesus enters the scene with the proclamation “I am the light of the world”. The background is that of the Feast of the Tabernacles, a Jewish celebration destined to commemorate Israel’s pilgrimage in the desert. On the night of this solemnity, torches and bonfires were lit on the walls of the Temple in Jerusalem, which with their splendor illuminated the holy city. The high priest then descended in procession to the pool of Siloam to draw with a golden bottle, lustral water (purifying water) to be poured on the altar of holocausts.
The goal this “sign” of the born blind is directing us is now visible. This story is an arrow pointing at Christian baptism which in the Church of the first centuries was precisely called “enlightenment”. It is not for nothing that in our second reading today we hear a splendid text by Paul all imbued with light: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light and take no part in the fruitless works of darkness. Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.” (Eph 5).

St Augustine, playing on the meaning of the name of this pool, Silo-envoy, “sentinger”, that is, emission of water, writes: “By now you know who the envoy, the sent is; if Christ had not been sent, none of us would have been rescued from sin. The blind man therefore washed his eyes in that font which translates as “Sent”, that is, he was baptized in Christ”. And it is for this reason that the Lenten itinerary is a strong baptismal proposal, it is an invitation to go back to the source, to rediscover our greatness, often tarnished by sin.

The third element like a golden thread, unites the whole story of the miracle. This is found in the succession of titles given to Christ by the man born blind. Through these titles the true portrait of Jesus is recomposed. We are before a story of the discovery of the face of Christ, a story of a conversion. The eyes of the blind see not only the colorful horizons of the world but penetrate the mystery of God.

The first degree of this itinerary of faith is the acknowledgment of Christ as man (“that man who is called Jesus”); in our story he presents himself as the Sent, the supreme messenger of God, the one who comes from God”. Our blind seer also discovers him as a Prophet, but the climax is in the final scene when that poor man worshipped in adoration of Jesus as the Son of man, the messianic title so dear to Jesus, and as Kyrios, “Lord”, a name interchangeable with God. This is precisely a symbolic representation of our liturgy in which we celebrate and adore “Our Lord Jesus Christ”. The itinerary of the blind man is, also our necessary spiritual journey conducted in the “continuous growth of the knowledge of God”, as Paul wrote. It is a serious path of the catechesis every believer must travel especially in the Lenten season so that he “knows how to answer anyone who asks him the reason for the hope that is in him” (1 Pt 3:15).

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