To See with the Eyes of Christ
Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
We are in the middle of our Lenten journey and the magnificent gospel readings that we have from the gospel of John tell us who Jesus really is. Last Sunday we had, for example, the gospel of the woman at the well; this Sunday we have the gospel of the man born blind; and next Sunday we have the resurrection of Lazarus. Notice that the three gospels present three very important images of Jesus.
The first image is the one of “living water”. The woman at the well wanted to draw water to satisfy her physical thirst, Jesus however, wants to satisfy her soul. If we want to quench our thirst with something less than God, we are not going to be satisfied. The second image, the one that we find in this Sunday’s gospel, is the image of Jesus as “light of the world”. From the moment we are born we carry the burden of the original sin that in a sense makes all blind. Lastly, and probably the most important image of all that we will see next Sunday is Jesus as the “Resurrection and the life”.
For now let us just reflect on the image of Jesus as the light of the world. Origen, one of the great Fathers of the Church said “to be holy is to see with the eyes of Christ”. The man born blind was an outcast and rejected by the Pharisees who instead of rejoicing because of what Jesus have done with this man; they try to keep him away. Jesus does not only helps him to recover his sight but his dignity. Jesus gives him a new vision and a new identity. Jesus wants to do the same with all of us. He wants to heal us from the blindness of sin and to be holy, that is, to see with his eyes.
Children of the Light
The future king, David, in today’s first reading, is an example of a type of character present throughout the Hebrew scriptures. He is the child born out of place (not the eldest or most favored) who ends up receiving the promise of the covenant. The spirit of God’s anointing rushes upon him. In this way, he is similar to the man born blind from today’s Gospel. David’s family and the blind man’s community did not expect the miraculous grace of God’s love to work through them. Perhaps they, too, were “blinded” by the expectations and assumptions of those around them. Yet, after being touched by God, they both came to “see” the presence of God’s will for them. Both became messengers of God’s will. That same Spirit of God’s anointing rushed upon us at our baptism; we were given a candle as a sign of our membership in the Body of Christ, the Light from Light. Our vocation, then, is to fulfill that enlightenment, that anointing, as Ephesians tells us, by living as “children of the light.”
Readings for the Week
Monday: Is 65:17-21; Ps 30:2, 4-6, 11-13b; Jn 4:43-54
Tuesday: Ez 47:1-9, 12; Ps 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9; Jn 5:1-16
Wednesday: Is 49:8-15; Ps 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18; Jn 5:17-30
Thursday: Ex 32:7-14; Ps 106:19-23; Jn 5:31-47
Friday: Wis 2:1a, 12-22; Ps 34:17-21, 23; Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Saturday: Jer 11:18-20; Ps 7:2-3, 9bc-12; Jn 7:40-53
Sunday: Ez 37:12-14; Ps 130:1-8; Rom 8:8-11; Jn 11:1-45 [3-7, 17, 20-27