Past Homily

          The Homily of Father Jose  

March 10, 2024

          Fourth Sunday of Lent  - Light of Faith

In today’s gospel, Jesus gave not only external sight, but also internal sight to the beggar. This caused the people in the town to challenge him, because the traditional belief was that human handicap and illness were punishments from God for sins.  People believed that the punishments could be the result of one’s parent’s sin or their own.  So the disciples asked:  “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents? (John 9:2)”.  Jesus did not blame him or his parents.  This obvious miracle in the restoration of sight shows the glory and power of God.

The real miracle for the blind man was not that he could now see the world; but that he was able see his own sins and the true nature of the people around him.  He gained inter-sight from Jesus to see the jealousy among his neighbors, the hypocrisy in the leaders and the fear of his parents.      But instead of fighting with them, he believed in Jesus’ teaching and glorified him.  He said to Jesus:  “I do believe, Lord” and bowed down to worship him (John 9:38).

When we are not in the state of grace, we are spiritually blind.  That is why we cannot find good things in our neighbors.  Instead, we always look for bad things.  We criticize people or talk behind their back.  By this we cause great damage to our brothers and sisters.  These sins violate the eighth commandment, which says: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”.  When we are jealous, angry and uncharitable we cannot see the good things in people.  We cannot see the internal beauty of our brothers and sisters.  Lent is a good time to pray for the restoration of our internal sight so that we can see the goodness in others and rejoice with them.  We need to walk in the light of faith, the light of the Easter fire, which will dispel the darkness.  “Lord, open our internal sight, so that   we may see the goodness of the people and glorify you.”

                                                                            Amen        

 

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