Light and Darkness

Based on the Bible Reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent: John 9: 1-41 Once a blind man and a crossed-eyed were starting a fight. The blind  shouted angrily, “Coward, come out of the dark and fight!” The cross-eyed shouted back, “Unfair. One at a time!”

Our Gospel today is about  blindness  – the theme of  light and darkness.

Fr. Mark Link  wrote about the  experiences of blindness of two other men.

The first one is  Jack Abbot, who spent all but one year of his life in  reform schools  and prisons since he was 12. And about  15 of these years  have been spent in  solitary confinement. One of his worst solitary experiences was the so-called  “blackout” cell, which Abbott describes this way:

“It was in  total darkness.  Not a crack of light entered the cell… The darkness was so absolute it was  like being in ink. The only light I saw was  when I closed my eyes. Then there was before me a vivid burst of brilliance, of color, like fireworks. When I opened my eyes, it would vanish. My eyes hungered for light, for color, the way someone’s  dry mouth hunger for saliva.”

Another experience of blindness was that of a man named  Evans. After being  blind for 51 years, Evans received sight through an operation. Describing how it felt to see for the first time, he says: “It’s the most amazing thing in the world… I can’t wait to get up each day to see what I can see… Everything is like a constant high.”

These two stories give us an insight into how the man born blind felt when Jesus gave him physical sight.

But in the Gospel,  there is a more important miracle that takes place. In the story of the blind man, John, the evangelist, describes for us  how Jesus brings us to insight. The blind man’s miracle of physical sight was nothing compared to the second miracle  Jesus worked for him. That was  the miracle of spiritual sight, the gift of faith, which Jesus also gave him. And  it is this second miracle, the gift of faith that  John stresses  in today’s Gospel.

The first thing John implies is that  the gift of faith takes place gradually, not all at once. John describes the miracle as taking place  in three stages.

The  first stage  comes, when some people ask the blind man about his cure. The blind man replies, “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 so the blind man’s  first perception of Jesus is that he is a man – a remarkable man, but just  a man. The  second stage  in the blind man’s gift of  spiritual sight comes, when the Pharisees interrogated him. They ask,  “What do you have to say about [Jesus], since he opened your eyes?”

The man replies,  “He is a prophet.” The blind man’s answer reveals  a growth in his understanding of Jesus. His spiritual vision of Jesus takes a giant leap forward. The more he thinks about what happened, the more convinced the blind man becomes that Jesus must be more than just another man.

He must be a man of God, a prophet!

This brings us to the  third stage  of the blind man’s perception of Jesus. Later on in the day, the blind man meets Jesus face-to-face. Remember, Jesus was no longer around when the man returned with his sight after washing in the pool of Siloam. Now, Jesus looks into the man’s eyes and says, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

The man answers,  “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”

Jesus responds,  “You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he.” “I do believe,  Lord,”  the man replies, and he falls on his knees before Jesus.

And so the man’s spiritual vision of Jesus takes its final leap forward. He perceives Jesus to be  more than a man. He perceives Jesus to be  more than a prophet. He perceives  Jesus to be the Lord, before whom  “every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

And so the man’s spiritual sight, his gift of faith, is far more miraculous than his gift of physical sight.

This brings us to the question: What does the cure of the blind man’s gift of faith in Jesus say to us? There is a similarity between us and the man born blind. It is that  our gift of faith in Jesus did not come all at once either. It too came gradually, by stages.

For example,  when we were small,  the first picture we had of Jesus was that of  a man  – a remarkable man, but still  only a man.

As we  grew older, our perception of Jesus also grew. And our perception of Jesus continues to grow, even to this day, regardless of how old we are.

One of the exciting things about Jesus is that the older we get, the more we learn about him.

And the more we learn about him,  the more attractive he becomes.

In other relationships it’s usually just the opposite. The more we learn about a person, the more we become aware of his or her shortcomings. With Jesus the opposite is true. The more we learn about Jesus, the more exciting and the more glorious he becomes. Let us close with these thoughts about our Lord and Savior from Fr. Mark Link, S.J.:

Jesus comes to each one of us As he came to people in biblical times. He comes as a remarkable man. He speaks the same three words to us That he spoke to people in biblical times: “Come, follow me.”

And if we follow him, As did the people in biblical times, Jesus will reveal himself to us step by step.

Then some morning, When the sun rises in the sky, We too will eventually come to see What they saw. Then we too will fall on our knees Before Jesus and say to him, “We believe, Lord! We believe you are the Son of God!”