As we usher into the middle of our Lenten journey, we rejoice and are grateful for the strength and perseverance that the Lord has given us in our resolve to configure ourselves more and more to the person of Christ. This configuration to the person of Christ is basically what conversion is all about—the primary call of the season of Lent. An essential element of conversion is seeing things through the eyes of faith or looking at things through the eyes of Christ.
In the Year A Sunday gospel for this weekend, we are presented with the character of the man born blind. I can not even imagine what it is like to be blind, but it is a whole different thing to be blind from birth. Because of his condition as blind from birth , he was ostracized and shunned by his very own culture. And because everyone had turned their backs to him, including his own family, he found himself begging in order to survive. He was in desperate need. In the societal or communal level, he was nobody. But something deeper and interior must have been disturbing him as well. As someone who was blind from birth, he did not know what it was like to see, he did not even know his face, he did not even know his family – what they looked like, the difference between day and nigh—he only knew one thing, and that was total darkness. On a personal level, he was suffering immensely for he only knew darkness. Jesus will change that for he will transform darkness to light. Lent is the season for us to slowly remove the scales that blur our vision of who God is and who we are in relation to our Creator. The communion antiphon for this Sunday’s Mass sums it up: “The Lord anointed my eyes: I went, I washed, I saw and I believed in God.”
We might not find ourselves in total darkness or we may not be wallowing or lurching in a life of sin, but there are still some things that continue to blind us in seeing our true identity and the true identity of
others around us. Do I see myself as a temple of the Holy Spirit, thus called to live a life of purity and chastity according to my own state of life? How do I see my spouse—do I see him or her as a
co-journeyer or pilgrim to the life of holiness? How about my co-workers? Do I see them as my
collaborators in bringing out the best that God has given me, or do I see them as a threat and
competition? How about my parents, now that they are losing their strength and their memory, do I see them purely as a burden, or do I see them as God’s gifts for me to appreciate the very life that I am
enjoying? How about others who are different from me: socially, culturally, and linguistically? How do I see them—with the eyes of contempt or of hospitality?
This coming Thursday, March 10, at 7pm is our Lenten Reconciliation Service. It is a wonderful and apt time for us to remove the scales that hinder us to fully appreciate and relish our identity as sons and daughters of the Father. God’s tender mercy truly improves our vision and allows us to see once again our original dignity. As what the Preface for this Sunday’s Mass proclaims:
“By the mystery of the incarnation, he has led the human race that walked in darkness into the radiance of the faith and has brought those born in slavery to ancient sin through the waters of regeneration to make them your adopted children. “
On this Laetare Sunday, we rejoice in our somber anticipation of the great feast that is yet to come in Easter, where darkness is no more, but only light envelops the whole creation. – Fr. Cary