4th Sunday, Lataere Sunday, Blind Man

 

“O Lord, open the eyes of my heart, that I may see you.”  

Today is Lataere Sunday, Rejoice Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent! The priest wears glorious rose-colored vestments as a sign of joy. This weekend, Holy Mother Church pauses from Her Lenten sorrow for the sins of men, and the sufferings of Christ, to give way to a foretaste of Easter Joy! Soon the Easter joy will ring out, “Christ our Light, has risen, from the darkness of the tomb!”

Try to imagine what it would be like to be born blind. The man in the Gospel would never have seen his father or mother or siblings. He had never seen a sunrise or a sunset, the blue sky, nor clouds or lightning, or the moon or the stars. He had never even seen the food he was eating. His whole world was nothing but darkness.

In the Gospel, the man born blind is healed by Jesus, who is “the light of the world”. What do you think was the first thing he saw? Probably, the water when he washed the mud Jesus placed on his eyes. Then after giving witness to the Pharisees, Jesus found Him and it was then, He saw the face of Christ.

The healing of the man born blind is seen by the Fathers of the Church as a miracle symbolizing the sacrament of baptism in which, the Holy Spirit, through water, is used to cleanse the soul and receives the light of faith: “(Jesus) sent the man to the pool called Siloam, to be cleansed and be enlightened, that is, baptized and receive in baptism full enlightenment.”

Since all of us were born with blindness of original sin, we can identify with the challenges this man faced. Just as the blind man’s physical blindness made it difficult for him to live in freedom and independence, so our spiritual blindness causes us to struggle to find our way to God, to see God in others. Just as Jesus healed this man of his blindness, he has washed you-- clean of sin and healed your spiritual blindness in the waters of baptism. Although our original sin is washed away through baptism, the inclination to sin remains, and we still find it difficult to see things the way God sees them. We lack the light to walk in love and holiness, and God can seem distant.

The blind man is a straightforward person, and believes Jesus is a prophet, and the Son of God. Whereas the Pharisees persist in not wanting to see or believe, despite clear evidence before them.

In this miracle, Jesus reveals Himself as the true light that enlightens every man, who came into the world. Not only did He give sight to the eyes of the blind man; He enlightens his soul, leading him to make an act of faith in His divinity.

Our Blessed Lord questioned the blind man, and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” and he responds by stating, “I do believe Lord” and he worshiped Him. The healing of his eyes became an occasion for the man to be enlightened as to who Jesus is and to believe in Him.

The Pharisees however persisted in their unbelief, which is why 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.” The Pharisees knew He was talking about them, and so, they said, “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”, your sin remains.”

Our Lord was referring to their spiritual blindness. They could not accept His good deed of healing a blind man, as something coming from God because they presumed Jesus was a sinner, but He was not.

If one was a blind during the time of Jesus, he could not work and so was dependent upon others to help him. Just like the man in the Gospel who had to beg for food and money just to survive. For someone to go blind today, they would immediately become dependent upon others.

There is at least one blind person, who I know, that lives in Little River. She is a wonderful person, who never shows dissatisfaction or unhappiness, but rather accepts her condition. Her joyful attitude bears witness to Christ, whose light she shines into the world through her.

I told you the story before of a man, who used to be a satanic high-priest, but was converted through the miraculous medal. His name is Zachary King. He lives in Wichita and is a motivational speaker. Zachary told me, he is blind because he never took care of his diabetes. One day, because he didn’t take care of his health, he woke up, and was blind. Yet, despite his blindness, he sees what is true and that Jesus is Lord and Savior. Through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, he was enlightened to see the evil he was doing, to repent of it, and now he brings the light of Christ to all who hear his talks.

There is a documentary called “Purgatory”, that explains experiences of the afterlife. One experience in the movie, is about a little girl who drowned, and after she had died, they were able to revive her. The girl was blind from birth, and yet, she could describe in detail the pond, the birds, and telephone poles where she had drowned. Even though she has never been able to see, God showed her what it was like to see.

When I was an associate pastor at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, an elderly woman in her 90’s was going blind. She prayed to Jesus, “Please grant me the grace to not go blind”. She decided to do a novena to St. Lucy, and it so happened, by God’s divine providence, on the last and 9^th day of the novena, she had an appointment with her eye doctor. She was given an eye drop medicine with the name Luceria. Not only did it prevent her from losing her eyesight, she actually began to see better. St. Lucy is the patron saint of the blind, because its believed her eyes were plucked out, but God miraculously restored her eyesight. The elderly woman’s faith in God caused her to be healed of her blindness through the intercession of a saint and her faith brought the light of Christ to all who knew her.

Have you heard of Christopher Duffley? He was born 3 months premature, and as a newborn baby, he was addicted to cocaine because his mother took cocaine and Oxycontin while pregnant. His aunt and uncle adopted him. He was born blind and autistic. When he was 4 years old, he began to sing with perfect pitch and sang the song, “Open the eyes of my heart” The song goes like this, “Open the eyes of my heart Lord, Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you. To see you high and lifted up. Shining in the light of your glory. Pour out your power and love, as we sing, holy, holy, holy. “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, I want to see you. I want to see you.” As a blind autistic boy, Jesus uses him to break forth His light through his voice. He sings the song, not to be physically healed, but to see Jesus, with the eyes of his heart.

Most, with disabilities, prayed at one time, the Lord would heal them. How much they desire to have the Lord, touch, and heal their broken bodies, and be restored to the fullness of health.

Many have ventured to Lourdes, France to obtain a healing through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, and some have been healed there. But the most common form of healing is the healing of the soul, where people have not gone to confession for a long time, will go and then are able to accept their physical condition and have peace in their heart by embracing it as a cross.

The Pharisees were blind to their sins and remained in their blindness. But the man born blind, was healed physically and came to know and believe Jesus is the Son of man, as he told Our Lord, “I do believe” and worshiped Him because He believed He is God.

In what ways can we be spiritually blind? If we knew our neighbor was blind, would we volunteer to help the person in their needs? If we know of someone, who lost a relative, do we show our love and support by prayers, visiting them, sending them a caring note? These are not just one time efforts to help others, but rather, we need to be a caring people to show our love and support in the long term. What’s it like to lose a spouse through death or divorce and then the single parent takes care for the children alone? My grandfather died at a young age and my grandmother had to take care of 5 children on her own. Was there anyone there to help her? Did the Christian community rally to support her in a long term manner? Flowers are nice, cards are nice, but sometimes they someone to talk to, they need money to help pay their bills.

When I was in high school, my grandmother’s waterline kept freezing in her home. Do you know why it was freezing? Because she didn’t have enough money to keep the temperature in her house warm enough and also was afraid to let the water drip too fast, because she didn’t have enough money to pay her water bill. She kept a pan underneath the faucet to catch the drops of water and she used that water to boil eggs. She slept on a cot in the only room that had a gas furnace, and closed all the doors to the rest of the house, because she didn’t have enough money to heat the entire house. Can you imagine living like that? After graduating in High School, I had a good job, and when I found out, that was the case, I put her gas bill in my name and they sent me her gas bill every month. How did God open my heart to see, I don’t know. I give Him all the credit.

Our hearts need to be open to see Jesus in the disguise of the poor, the down trodden. Our Lord said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.” God calls everyone of us to open the eyes of our heart, that we can see Jesus those suffering from any difficulty.

Do you know what the definition of mercy is? It comes from the Latin word, misericordia. “miseri” is misery and “cordia” is heart. The word means to open the heart-- to see the misery of others and relieve that misery, which is mercy.

We are all called to be lights in the world of darkness by our words, our good deeds, our acceptance of our crosses and using our gifts to help others. If we ignore someone in need, we are blind to their needs, while at the same time, the blind see-- because of their faith.

In the second reading, in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he said, “Brothers and sisters: You were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”

Today on this Lataere Sunday, this rejoice Sunday, may we rejoice in the faith of the physically blind, who out of love of Jesus accept their condition and therefore shine forth the light of Christ to us, in this world of darkness. And may we bring the light of Christ to those who are in need of love. O Mary, Mother of the Light, by your intercession, may our heart be open to see the miseries of others and to relieve their suffering by our acts of mercy.