Readings: 1 Samuel 16, 1-13; Psalm 23, The Lord is My Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want; Ephesians 5, 8-14; John 9, 1-41.
Fourth Sunday of Lent – Intro to Readings
Our three readings today have to do with seeing. In the first reading we have the account of Samuel being sent by God to find a successor to King Saul. At this time, the succession of the kings was not by direct descendant, but they were chosen by God.. Recall that Saul was their first king, a king they demanded from God so that they could be just like every other people around them. God gave them Saul. Saul did not quite work out, and today’s reading is the account of God’s selection of his successor, David. The account focuses on the fact that God sees people differently than we do. You might say he shines a light through the cover of the book to see into the person.
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians continues this theme of God’s light and introduces us to the well-known phrase “Jesus is the Light of the World”. The Letter to the Ephesians is one of those letters where Paul’s authorship is strongly questioned. The letter contains no references to companions, addresses no particular questions or issues in a particular community, and very closely resembles the Letter to the Colossians. There is much reference to Baptism in the letter and it seems that some of the passages in the letter are taken from early Christian liturgies, particularly Baptism.
Our responsorial Psalm today is the very beautiful Psalm 23 “The Lord is my Shepherd” and has two ideas: God as Shepherd and God as Host. The psalm was probably part of a thanksgiving liturgy.
Our gospel today is from St. John and originally I had intended to read the shorter version, but all of the commentators I read were so full of praise for the entire chapter and how it is one of the masterpieces of Johannine story telling, well what could I do!
Homily
Last Monday after work, I caught the DART train home. When I got into the front carriage, there was a young woman at the front of the carriage speaking to everyone. I sat down and immediately realized I was in for a sermon!! Not what I needed at that moment. I wanted the train driver to come out of his cab and toss her off the train! But as she talked I listened. She was telling us about how Jesus had come into her life and saved her, and Jesus would save us too, if we would only accept him. In fact we were already saved.
As I listened, I started to do what the Pharisees did in today’s Gospel. I wondered so what now, what is the big difference in her life, I wanted to know the “so what”. Then I began to ask myself would I be willing to get up in front of a carriage full of people and share my faith in Jesus. She was a very good speaker, she spoke clearly and calmly. Then she sat down after thanking us for listening. The man in the row behind her leaned forward and said something to her, I didn’t hear, but I could see that she wiped a tear from her eye. The train rolled on and after a few stops she rose, turned to us all and invited us to have a “Blessed day” and got off.
Onto the train got a young man, who sat in her seat, about her age, dressed all in black, a black shirt with the word “neurosis” written across the front, long hair and a tattoo on his arm. He had leather straps on his wrists with metal spikes on them, and a metal belt and chains around his waist, and a ring in his nose!! Oh boy, did I have fun with the contrast as I thought about today’s readings! I had jumped to all sorts of conclusions about the young man. I was judging the book by the cover.
If I go back to my questions about what the young woman was saying. So what difference was Jesus’ presence in my life? I need to constantly be aware of my own blindness when it comes to other people. I need to make sure I don’t fall into the trap of having a closed mind, which is what the Pharisees had in the gospel. They were completely blind to the miracle, and only saw that Jesus broke the Sabbath law.
The blind man’s sight of who Jesus was is something that happened over time. At first he saw Jesus as “the man Jesus”, then “he is a prophet” then finally as “Lord”. So too for us, our sight, our faith, is a journey and we grow in our understanding of who Jesus is and what our response to Him is, as we live and allow Him into our lives.
Picture 1: Mass begins with Tony & Kevin
Picture 2: Tony congratulating Bob
Picture 3: Beth & Rob, Beth being today's photographer
Picture 4: Cara & Sean with mom & dad, Christine & Ed
Picture 5: Leo joins the choir
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