5th pascal sunday Acts 16.16-34 John 9.1-41 (The Man Born Blind)
Christ is risen. Christos voskress.
Even though we are all, or almost all, enlightened by the grace of the sacrament of baptism, each one of us is fundamentally blind from birth, even until today. Indeed, let us
be in fear of the last words Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel: “If you
say: ‘I see’, your sin remains”. The re-creation Jesus comes to live
on earth is not an event singled out in our history. The re-creation
Jesus comes to live on earth is an absolute reality belonging to the
present moment. Today the blind man manifests a journey open to us.
In this journey, Jesus beautifully identifies us to himself. He says:
“We must work the works of God”. Today Jesus puts that earth, "adamah"
in Hebrew, with which He has formed Adam on my eyes and asks me to go
bathe in the pool of Siloam. Let us not be under the judgment of God,
as in Chapter 8 of the prophet Isaiah, where God says: “This people
has rejected the waters of Siloam that flow gently.”
The waters of Siloam were used for the cleansing of the Temple utensils. We are most
precious utensils, created for worship in the Temple. Our most
difficult work, as precious utensils, is engaging with courage and
perseverance in the same fight in between light and darkness as the
blind man of today’s gospel. When the powers of darkness are seeking
for accusations to condemn Jesus, they ask the blind man biased
questions, they ask: “Are you the blind one from birth?” Our blind man
beautifully answers with two words: “I am”. The same words “I am” that
Jesus repeats all along the Gospel of St John. “I am” defines Jesus’
own identity. In our fight in between light and darkness, we are to
repeat those two words “I am”, meaning “I have no other identity than
the one Jesus gives me”. We are not to enter in the game of the powers
of darkness that seek to entice us, but, like our blind man, let us
stick to certainty about the graces we have received. In the heart of
today’s gospel, there is a victory of darkness over light in the
parents of the blind man. Out of fear they let darkness rule them. In
the roots of our being there are also victories of darkness over
light, there is also the rule of darkness over light. Each time I say:
“I am awful” or each time I submit to any negative thought about my
situation, present or past, or to any negative thought about a brother
or sister around me, these are all victories of darkness over light.
But today’s gospel calls us to never accept such defeats to be the end
word. As for our blind man, I need to recognize weaknesses in the
games of the powers of darkness, they look for more than their
victories of the past, their real goal is to weaken my present faith
in the touch of God I have received in Christ Jesus, they say about
Jesus: “He is defiling the holiness of the Sabbath day”. They are
distorting God’s intentions. What is the true way of glorifying God?
It is to hear Jesus come to me and ask me: “Do you believe in the Son
of man?” Like the blind man, I am to dialogue with Jesus to find the
answer, and ask Jesus: “And who is he that I believe in him?” Then
Jesus repeats to me his two precious words: “I am, I am he who
delivers you of your blindness, I am he whom you see”. True worship
comes as a fruit of this whole experience. Jesus has come first to
meet me and invite me to his work of recreating me. Immediately, Jesus
asks me to be a soldier engaged with him in his difficult fight for
light to gain victory over darkness. In the midst of this fight, let
me not lose that I have behind me that Jesus has already come to me
and touched me with his grace, and that he will come again to perfect
in me his work of recreation. Jesus is leading me in a journey from
darkness to light, from death to life. This is what we celebrate
during the Pascal Season. In honor of this last Sunday of the Pascal
Season, let us now repeat three times our faith that Jesus leads us
from darkness to light, from death to life. Christ is risen. Christ is
risen. Christ is risen.