FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT
In these Lenten Days of 2020, we meet a man in the gospel with 20/20 vision!
He began the day in blindness but, having encountered Jesus, ended it able to see. His sight ran deeper than just seeing the people and things around him. For alongside his physical sight, his spiritual sight was also ignited. Having been questioned by people who could not accept Jesus, he came to realise that only a man who comes from God can give sight to the blind. When he pointed out this simple truth, he was put in his place by the experts: “Do you mean to teach us and you a sinner through and through?”
The manner of his healing is significant. It is messy – Jesus taking soil from the ground and spitting on it to make a paste that he rubs into the man’s eyes. Little regard for health and safety there! Yet what needed to happen, happened. The man was gifted with the ability to see. Is there some deeper significance in this? Is there something about respect for the earth – that earth that receives our mortal remains and from which, with Jesus, we strive to rise again. Is the spittle something to do with tears, waters flowing from Jesus’ side? Maybe or maybe not but the fact remains that God uses the everyday things around us to work his miracles if only we have eyes to see.
Reminding ourselves again of Trócaire’s Lenten Campaign, we are aware of families blinded and harassed by circumstances not of their making. Like the Gospel man today, the sins are not theirs or those of their parents, they are victims of injustice. Just as the Lord wished to open a new future for the blind man, so he does for those at the heart of the Lenten campaign. It may not be easy but there is surely a call going out to all who can help to do so in whatever way is possible. Perhaps the eyes that need opening today, are the eyes of the oppressors, that they may see clearly the harm they are inflicting on others.
TROCAIRE PARISH PACK:
Below you can find a link to a parish pack resource provided by Trocaire