This Mass may be used on any day of the Fourth Week of Lent, especially in years B
and C when the Gospel of the man born blind is not read on the Fourth
Sunday of Lent.
Readings and Commentary: [2]
FIRST READING
I will look to the LORD,
I will put my trust in God my savior;
my God will hear me!
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy!
though I have fallen, I will arise;
though I sit in darkness, the LORD is my light.
The wrath of the LORD I will endure
because I have sinned against him,
Until he takes up my cause,
and establishes my right.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I will see his justice.
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Commentary on Mi 7:7-9
This selection concludes the Prophet’s lament in v.7 with faith and trust that God will forgive the sins of the people. It then begins the final section of the book which presents his own contrition and hope for the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy to those who return to him.
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. (1a) The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Hear, O LORD, the sound of my call;
have pity on me and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Your presence, O LORD, I seek!
Hide not your face from me;
do not in anger repel your servant.
You are my helper; cast me not off.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD!
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
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Commentary on Ps 27:1, 7-8a, 8b-9abc, 13-14
Psalm 27 begins in the form of a soliloquy asserting God’s role as refuge and savior. This passage continues with a prayer as the psalmist yearns to see God’s face to obtain his indulgence.
“Commenting on this psalm, St. Augustine writes; ‘In the most hidden place, where only you may hear it, my heart says to you: Lord, I seek your face: and I will continue in this search, without ever taking rest, so that I may love you freely, for I will never find anything more precious than [your face]’ (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 26.8) [3]
CCC: Ps 27:8 2730
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GOSPEL:
As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered,
“Neither he nor his parents sinned;
it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.
Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When he had said this, 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 and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said,
“Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”
Some said, “It is, “
but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”
He said, “I am.”
So they said to 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.’
So I went there and washed and was able to see.”
And they said to him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I don’t know.”
They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.
Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.
So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.
He said to them,
“He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”
So some of the Pharisees said,
“This man is not from God,
because he does not keep the sabbath.”
But others said,
“How can a sinful man do such signs?”
And there was a division among them.
So they said to the blind man again,
“What do you have to say about him,
since he opened your eyes?”
He said, “He is a prophet.”
Now the Jews did not believe
that he had been blind and gained his sight
until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
They asked them,
“Is this your son, who you say was born blind?
How does he now see?”
His parents answered and said,
“We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
We do not know how he sees now,
nor do we know who opened his eyes.
Ask him, he is of age;
he can speak for himself.”
His parents said this because they were afraid
of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed
that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ,
he would be expelled from the synagogue.
For this reason his parents said,
“He is of age; question him.”
So a second time they called the man who had been blind
and said to him, “Give God the praise!
We know that this man is a sinner.”
He replied,
“If he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”
So they said to him,
“What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?”
He answered them,
“I told you already and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
They ridiculed him and said,
“You are that man’s disciple;
we are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses,
but we do not know where this one is from.”
The man answered and said to them,
“This is what is so amazing,
that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners,
but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he would not be able to do anything.”
They answered and said to him,
“You were born totally in sin,
and are you trying to teach us?”
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.
Then Jesus said,
“I came into this world for judgment,
so that those who do not see might see,
and those who do see might become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this
and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.
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Commentary on Jn 9:1-41
The story of the healing of the man born blind is the sixth sign that Jesus is the Son of God from St. John’s Gospel. In this story we are presented with Jesus as “The light of the world”. The story provides a number of key theological points that help understand the mission of Christ.
The first of these points is the understanding that sin is not inherited. The Jews believed that the man born blind had inherited sin ("Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?") This understanding would have been shared by the Pharisees in that it was supported by both tradition and Old Testament Scripture (Exodus 20:5).
Next we see that the Pharisees are accusing Jesus of violating the Sabbath, considering it “work” to cure a person on that day when all work was to cease. The logic that flowed from this was that Jesus could not he a prophet (much less the Messiah) if he did not keep the scrupulous Pharisaic laws governing the Sabbath.
The references to the miracle were clearly disturbing to the people of the Jewish community as we hear even the parents of the man born blind avoiding validating Jesus’ standing as prophet or Messiah for fear of be called blasphemous and being thrown out or shunned by the faith community. This is what happened to the man born blind as he continued to argue that Jesus was from God and that he was the Messiah. This reaction/rejection attitude about Jesus as Messiah was formalized by the Jewish hierarchy around 85 A.D. when the curse against the minim or heretics was introduced into the "Eighteen Benedictions."
CCC: Jn 9:6 1151, 1504; Jn 9:7 1504; Jn 9:16-17 595; Jn 9:16 596, 2173; Jn 9:22 575, 596; Jn 9:31 2827; Jn 9:34 588; Jn 9:40-41 588
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Homily:
Heavenly Father, we humbly pray that those suffering from the coronavirus be returned quickly to full health by the power of your Son’s healing presence, and those in fear be calmed through the Holy Spirit.
In Christ’s name we pray. – Amen.
I’d like to have you reflect with me about what took place in the Gospel story we just heard. I know, it has just been proclaimed, and it is a story familiar to us with many symbolic parts (coming as it does from St. John’s Gospel). But I’d like to tell the story of the man born blind as I have imagined it, not as simply the sixth miracle story, not as another one of Jesus’ miracles, but as it must have impacted a real person and a real community.
First, let’s give the man born blind a name. No name is provided by St. John, so let’s call him Abner. (In Hebrew it means “father of light.” In the bible, he was King Saul's cousin, and the commander of his army. Abner was a valiant warrior and clever strategist.) When our "Abner" was still in the womb, his parents would have been filled with expectation. As with all parents, there was hope that he would become a great man.
Those hopes turned to ashes when they discovered some time after his birth that he could not see. In those times, this terrible affliction not only meant Abner would grow up to be a beggar (that was all he would be able to do once he came of age and his parents could no longer support him). It also meant that Abner’s parents, or perhaps even his grandparents had committed some unforgiven sin. What other reason could there be for God to punish them so – causing their son to be born blind.
This stain of humiliation would have caused Abner’s family to lose any esteem they may have had within their community. People would have wondered: what awful thing did they do to merit Abner’s affliction? It is no wonder that, after the miracle happened, they would have been less than cooperative with the local Jewish leaders, telling them to ask Abner about the miracle cure since he was of age.
Growing up in that village, Abner would have had a difficult time as well. Children would have heard from their parents how Abner was being punished by God, and they would not have been overly kind. Certainly Abner would have been lucky to have any friends. From his teenage years he would have been forced to beg for subsistence. He was completely dependent upon the charity of others.
Then, on a day, his life would be changed forever. Abner was sitting in his customary place on the outskirts of modern day Jerusalem. He heard a discussion in which he was keenly interested:
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
They were talking about him and he listened, already feeling humiliation for what he expected to follow, blame would be cast at either himself or his family. To his surprise the next voice he heard filled him with awe:
“Neither he nor his parents sinned; (the man said) it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
All of the sudden he heard footsteps approaching and someone was smearing something damp on his eyes. Abner would have been startled. Only the very brave would seek to intervene against God’s will. Then the man said:
“Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.”
Siloam was a small pool cut out of rock not too far away. Abner knew the way, and the authority with which he was told to go propelled him in that direction, feeling his way along what must have been a familiar path.
When he washed his eyes, for the first time in his experience he saw light. Abner must have gasped at least. Unfamiliar shapes surrounded him. Knowing more by touch and smell than any other sense, he would have seen his own face for the first time in that small pool. Knowledge and memory would have flooded into him: “I am the light of the world,” all of the sudden they would have meaning to Abner. He would have rushed back to the Lord, moving faster than he had ever been able to move. But who had cured him? Abner would have looked frantically seeking the voice because that would be the only way he could recognize the Lord.
People were staring at him now too. They knew him. How was it possible he could now see? They would have asked Abner how it had happened, and he knew only the name “Jesus.” It must have been mentioned by one of those following the Lord, but not recorded in scripture. They asked him where Jesus was, but poor Abner had never seen his face.
Jewish Law required Abner to go to the priests to demonstrate his wellbeing when cures were affected. This one would have really perturbed them. Abner had not recovered from some accident or gotten over some disease. He had been blind from birth. And these priests knew something Abner did not. They knew the identity of Jesus, and also knew he was a threat to their authority.
They needed to prove Jesus did not cause this miracle. First they challenged Abner’s identity. They even brought in his parents. Then they tried to prove Jesus had blasphemed by doing work on the Sabbath. Nothing changed the fact that God had been revealed in this carpenter’s son from Galilee.
Abner knew what had happened. He had heard Jesus speak even though he was blind. He had heard the words of the Law and Prophets his whole life. Jesus, who had smeared mud in his eyes and restored his sight must certainly be the Messiah. He challenged those in authority. When they started in the third time, Abner asked them: “Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
With that the priests effectively excommunicated him from the synagogue, a punishment for challenging their authority. Abner left the synagogue and found the Lord. Something in this man erased any doubt Abner had left. When the Lord asked: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (Using Isaiah’s words for the Messiah), Abner only needed to be sure by asking:
“Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
And when Jesus identified himself, Abner worshiped him – probably falling at his feet.
We do not know what became of Abner after that. He was undoubtedly one of the Lord’s followers, walking proof of God’s love. He saw and believed.
We are offered this story so we too might be reminded. Jesus was a real person. He walked the earth and lived as we do. We are asked to believe without seeing and follow him, the Light of the World, and in doing so become light ourselves.
Pax
[1] The picture is “Christ healing the Blind” by El Greco, 1567
[2] The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for English in Liturgy (ICEL). This re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[3] The Navarre Bible: “Psalms”, Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2003, pp 109
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