HOMILY

4th SUNDAY OF LENT (A)
Gospel: John 9:1-4 “The healing of the man born blind”

Theme: To hope, to trust and to proclaim Jesus as the light of the world.

Once, there was a very devout man who wakes up early in the morning to join the celebration of the Eucharist at their village chapel. He does it almost everyday. After the Eucharist he would talked to people and give them words to lighten their day and goes home. Neighbors and people around the village say he is indeed a man of faith and trust in God. But one day, the news about the death of his only son by an accident shocks almost everyone. After the burial, the man wakes up very late and does not go to the church. Another day came, he was again absent in the chapel. And another day, a week, and another week and a month…he no longer goes to the chapel and no longer talks to people. Concern friends and neighbors came to asked him why he stops attending the Eucharist. And to their surprise, he said, I have been doing well for the rest of my life but why God took my child away?


Indeed, a real experience of suffering like death, disease, sickness, physical incapability’s like blindness and etc brought us face to face with our faith in God. It raises questions which are very natural and immediate to us, we asked: why? And sometimes we ended up into the extreme of hating God.

In today’s gospel, St John narrated the story of the healing of a man born blind. For those of us who enjoy the gift of sight, it is impossible to appreciate what it means to be blind. But for this man in the gospel, he may have heard people saying “what a beautiful sunset! What a beautiful flower! These are nonsense to him because he cannot see them. But for sure, what he felt most are the words of people mocking him, spitting on him, dislikes him, sending him away and telling him that he is a great sinner that is why he is blind. We just do not know how much he suffered in silence and how much he accumulated enough amounts of hate and anger for people and for God.

But what made him continue living? Do you ever wonder why?

Today, let the blind man himself teach us and remind us of the things we already know but we chose or perhaps we simply forget.

He is teaching us to hope.
Being expose to the multitude of passers by, he may have heard people talking about someone very extraordinary who goes village to village and disturbed the silence of the Pharisees and Scribes. He may have heard them talking about the numerous and miraculous healings done by this someone. Remaining in his post everyday is an attitude of a hopeful waiting. He waits the day that this man might visit his village. His prayer might be like this: “Oh heavenly God, since I cannot see, if ever he passes by let him be the one to see me.” What a hopeful prayer!


He is teaching us to trust.
Being a blind man, the society considered him as an eye sore and a sinner. He is someone who has no status at all reduces like nothing but a sinner in the eyes of others. He might even think that he is a mistake of God’s creation that he was born only to be humiliated and rejected. When his hope arrives and when he was told by Jesus to go and wash his eyes, he may have felt being driven away by Jesus or he may have felt being rejected again. But he didn’t, as a blind, he might have struggled where to find the pool of Siloam. He went with trust to Jesus.

He is teaching us to proclaim the goodness of God.
There is no comparable joy we can ever imagine from the man who from his birth living in the darkness and now able to see. What a tremendous gratitude he can feel to someone who healed him, who give him light. As an effect, I am very sure that this man will never get tired of telling others how good the lord to him until the day he closes his eyes in death.

Now, what does this thing have to do with us since no one is physically blind around?

Just as this man who was healed from blindness telling the Pharisees and people around him how does Jesus healed him, we too today are ask to do the same - to tell our story of encounter with Jesus. To tell how much we see Jesus after he healed us from our own kind of blindness.

The Pharisees’ never sees Jesus because of their pride. Because they believe they can see and so they cannot see Jesus. This means that, their arrogance and pride blinded them to see Jesus. They in turn have seen Jesus as a law breaker and therefore he is not from God.

For us, we have to see the real Jesus like the Jesus who was being seen by the blind man after he was healed. He is the Jesus that fulfills our hope, the Jesus that gives us the assurance of his words and the Jesus that send us to proclaim the good news.

Everyday, we are being called to hope. This means believing that something good awaits us no matter what happens. Here in this chapel, count the number of our nationalities? We may be different in colors, in heights, languages, etc, but we have the same hope for the future…a better future…a hope with God. Our sacrifices like you leaving your beloved one’s at home means a lot of hope for the future. And needless to say that that hopes is anchored in God.
Everyday, we are being called to trust God. This is not easy but very possible, actually we have it already. To trust God is a lift of faith. It’s like saying “Thy will be done”. It is the submission of the heart to someone greater than us – to God. We came here in Congo with trust to God that he will always be with us, that God will take good care of us. Like the probable prayer of that blind man “O almighty God, since I cannot see let him be the one to see me.” Let us trust God that he will always give us the light when we fall in darkness.
Everyday, we are being called to proclaim the goodness of God. This is the missionary task that is expected to each of us – to proclaim the goodness of God. The blind man proclaims Jesus by recounting his experience with him. A very short encounter with Jesus but very concrete. We too have our experience of Jesus, concrete experience of Him that we can share to others.

By telling our experience of Jesus whenever we may be at home or at the office or anywhere, we share the mission of the Church to proclaim Jesus truly as the light of the world.

Please, today as we go home; bring with you the message of the blind man to hope in God, to trust in God and to proclaim God’s goodness to others. If there are things expected to us as Christians, I guess, some of those are these messages of the blind man.