when men become blind

In my reflection Last Sunday, I mentioned and I quote;

“…the remaining three Sundays of Lent are all about the encounter of Jesus with a sinner, with a ailing person and to the grieving poor loved ones of a dead person. Jesus will bring the Good News to all of them. For these three Sundays, Jesus will stand out as the Way, the Truth, and the Life of humanity waiting for redemption. “

Jesus had proven that he is the Way as narrated by the Evangelist John. Jesus extended his ministry from his friends [as in the Second Sunday of Lent] to the sinners. This Sunday, we will continue to look up close and personal to Jesus and his journey to Mount Calvary after the glorious transfiguration.

Jesus and the Man Born Blind

Most of us already experienced waking up in the middle of the night with no electricity and all lights turned off. There is total darkness. We almost thought we were blinds. Most of us may have experienced walking blindfolded and have no idea where direction we are going. Because of these, we are scared to be blind. We know that blindness is a form of separation to the world. Almost half of me will die if I become blind.

It is hard to imagine how a man who was born blind lived his life. Jesus clarified that it is not the fault of the man that caused his blindness but it so happened that the plan designed by God might be realized. Absence of sight is evil. Jesus explains that evil is not intended by God from the beginning. And again, the Gospel presents Jesus’ victory over evil. To annihilate evil, something good must replace it. Jesus gave sight to the man. The man was healed through the use of Jesus’ saliva. It taught me that we need a part of Jesus to truly recover. An interesting story of Jesus winning against evil that is physical blindness.

Meanwhile, another form of blindness appears before us--the religious blindness. The sanhedrin members so caught up of themselves that they weren't able to see the light that the blind man saw. They question the process of healing and even the veracity of the miracle. The laws so blinded the religious leaders that instead of being compassionate and understanding to the poor blind man, they turned into stony hearted regulators of social status quo. they were OCs of the torah.

How many times do we become blinded by our good intentions to the point that we neglect others in the process? How many times do we close our eyes to Jesus who is in our needy neighbors? Many times we are no different from the high priests of Jesus' time. When we are busy doing good to become too good, we forget to be good to others. Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man and also the heart that sees the goodness in the world but the religious leaders were so stiffed that they cannot even see a reason to rejoice and praise God in that very situation.

The stories of Lent are stories of winning souls back to God; of presenting Jesus as redeemer of mankind not only from sin but from the day-to-day evils of life; of resisting the temptations of the world and think closely of heavenly kingdom; of repentance and conversion. Jesus won the Samaritan woman and now the blind man who was given sight. How heartbreaking to see that there are also calloused persons who never wanted to receive Jesus in their hearts. They are hopeless situations because Christ's forgiveness is always available but they chose to harden their hearts. Better is the case of the blind man who, though blind physically, was able to see the truth but the other side were not able to see the truth because of their blindness. At the end they asked "Are you telling us we are blind?" because they were confused.

"Who is he Lord? That I may believe in him." is the response of the man to Jesus when asked if he believe in him. He is looking for the truth. The newly healed man yearns for certainty. Jesus offered him the truth. We want to see first to say something is true. Jesus came so tat those who do not see might see. Jesus offered us light. Jesus takes us away from darkness because he is light. The second reading teaches us, through Saint Paul, that we are children of light. Everything exposed by light becomes visible. We can see because there is light and light exposes the truth. Jesus is not only the cure to blindness. He not only is the giver of light and sight. Jesus is, above all, the truth. Without his light, we will be like Samuel in the first reading who only sees the appearance and not the heart. Jesus by healing the blind man exposed to the world who really are blinds. Like the cured blind man let us say to Jesus, "I do believe Lord" and let us worship him.