February 28, 2008<\/p>\n
Fourth Sunday of Lent<\/p>\n
1 Sam 16: 1, 6-7, 10-13; Eph 5: 8-14:<\/p>\n
Jn 9: 1-41<\/p>\n
Dc. Larry Brockman<\/p>\n
The English Poet Ralph Hodgson once said:\u00c2\u00a0 “Some things have to be believed to be seen”.\u00c2\u00a0 Consider the Blind man in today’s Gospel.\u00c2\u00a0 Jesus gave the blind man two precious gifts:\u00c2\u00a0 First, he gave him physical sight.\u00c2\u00a0 This brought much joy to him-\u00c2\u00a0 finally, he was able to add color and texture and context to the sounds and words and touches that had been his only experience of the world since birth.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s hard for all of us, sighted since birth, to appreciate what a gift that was.\u00c2\u00a0 Because we are blind ourselves to the fruits of that gift.\u00c2\u00a0 We take it for granted- the visual symphony of the sky and landscape; the subtle meanings expressed by body language; the look of love you receive from loved ones.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine the joy this man felt when his eyes were opened.\u00c2\u00a0 But this man was given a second gift- spiritual sight.\u00c2\u00a0 He was given the gift of faith.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Pharisees and Priests of that time were much feared.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no secret to their opposition to Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 The Gospel story makes that very clear.\u00c2\u00a0 It is also clear that the blind man’s parents feared the Pharisees.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t stand up to the Pharisees out of that fear.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Blind man recognized his second gift, and put it into practice.\u00c2\u00a0 First, he prostrated himself to Jesus, and worshiped him.\u00c2\u00a0 This man had been given faith- a conversion of the heart.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, he proved his faith by standing up to the powerful Pharisees despite any consequences.\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, he knew that no matter what they did to him, they couldn’t take away the two gifts of sight that Jesus gave him.\u00c2\u00a0 He could physically see, yes; but he could also see spiritually.\u00c2\u00a0 He believed and so he could see.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00c2\u00a0Not so the Pharisees.\u00c2\u00a0 What was important to them were the laws of Moses- no working on the Sabbath; no healing on the Sabbath.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, their lives were structured to occur within boundaries. And those strict boundaries are like a certain blindness.\u00c2\u00a0 They are blindness to change, to challenge, to growth; blindness to a vibrant, living light that leads to a richer understanding of God, one that leads to a personal relationship with Him and the joy and light at the end of that tunnel that goes with it.\u00c2\u00a0 They could not see the light beyond the darkness of their own blindness.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
When you think about it, all people, including the Pharisees, are given two gifts by God.\u00c2\u00a0 First, the gift of life itself, symbolized by physical sight in the Gospel.\u00c2\u00a0 But also, the gift of Spiritual life, symbolized by faith in God.\u00c2\u00a0 For us, that second gift is faith in Jesus Christ.\u00c2\u00a0 And along with that second gift of believing, comes the spiritual insight we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 But, our first gift, the gift of life, tends to blind us to the spiritual gift.\u00c2\u00a0 The pleasures and cares of our first gift, life upstage the need for our spiritual sight.\u00c2\u00a0 And so, we are blind.\u00c2\u00a0 We want to be popular; we want to be successful; we want to be comfortable.\u00c2\u00a0 These things take up all of our time and efforts, so that we are blind to the second gift- blind to the importance of spiritual sight, because life here is not what life is all about.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are two things that you can do to pursue the second gift.\u00c2\u00a0 First, you must strengthen your faith.\u00c2\u00a0 No matter what happens to you physically and in a worldly sense, never falter in your faith in God- faith that God exists, that he loves you, and that he has the best in mind and in store for you.\u00c2\u00a0 Second, show that faith to others.\u00c2\u00a0 That confirms to God that your faith is not just in “fair weather”, but is lasting.\u00c2\u00a0 We are used to hearing stories about people who were martyred for their faith.\u00c2\u00a0 But that\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcs just one way to show faith.\u00c2\u00a0 All of you that are here have been given the grace of a long life.\u00c2\u00a0 Your families and friends see in you a history that prefigures their own destiny.\u00c2\u00a0 You can demonstrate to them that your faith is strong and vibrant no matter what your age or condition.\u00c2\u00a0 That can do much in helping them to keep their faith.\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed, you can help them to understand that “Some things have to be believed to be seen”\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
February 28, 2008 Fourth Sunday of Lent 1 Sam 16: 1, 6-7, 10-13; Eph 5: 8-14: Jn 9: 1-41 Dc. Larry Brockman The English Poet Ralph Hodgson once said:\u00c2\u00a0 “Some things have to be believed to be seen”.\u00c2\u00a0 Consider the Blind man in today’s Gospel.\u00c2\u00a0 Jesus gave the blind man two precious gifts:\u00c2\u00a0 First, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}