Jesus: True Light of the world

4^th Sunday in Lent: A Reflection

TODAY, 4^th Sunday in Lent, is Laetare (Rejoice) Sunday. Rose vestment may be worn to invite us into the joy of having crossed the halfway line in our Lenten journey of penitence through self-denial that opens us to the grace of God who alone can lead us to conversion and life.  

As we get closer to the goal, we can have a clearer glimpse of our Easter and our Resurrection. Seeing a shadow of Easter, we rejoice, singing with musical instrument and placing flowers on the altar, the symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, the true end of our journey, the source of our resurrection.

Having survived and left the desert with the victorious Lord, we have climbed the mountain to peep into the glory we share with the Lord, called to be divine, to be His Father’s beloved sons and daughters. To be divine is a thirst no one can quench until we drink of God, the living water. 3^rd Sunday.

The sign of this 4^th Sunday is light. Born blind, we cannot see unless God intervenes. Jesus is the true light, the new David, the Shepherd King who leads us through the valley of darkness. His radiance sheds light on us that we may see him and follow him to successfully find our way to where He takes us.

True light

God does not see as man sees. Man looks at appearances, but God looks at the heart. In the first reading (1 Sam16:1. 6-7.10-13) Samuel is blind; he only looks at the appearance and height of Eliab and the seven sons of Jesse; he does not see as God sees; he almost misses out the fresh complexion, fine eyes, and pleasant bearing of David the one God chooses.

The truth is, much of the time, in all big and small ways, we are Samuel. The hopeless and dreadful thing is we don’t realize we are blind, have never seen, since birth. Our sight has been shadows of darkness which does not actually produce shadows that we consider light.  

Accepting our blindness

The story of the healing of the man born blind reveals all the deep shadows and impossible obstacles we face in acknowledging and accepting that we are blind. We are the neighbours, Pharisees, parents, even the man born blind himself. It will take a miracle to truly see again.

But miracles do happen, for God has come and intervened in Christ Jesus.

The Communion Antiphon beautifully puts the steps of God and the steps of man that are needed for a miracle:

“The Lord anointed my eyes, I went, I washed, I saw and I believed in God.”

• Always God who takes the initiative in His mercy and love
• We need to obey, go and wash, then we shall see, truly see, that is, to believe in Jesus the Light of the world.

Intriguingly, the man who has received his sight seems so casual about the miracle that has happened to him and has enabled him to stop begging for bread. But Jesus needed to meet him for a second time to restore his true sight – to believe.

This path is familiar in our own experience. Again, and again we drift back to blindness. Again, and again God comes to meet us and shares His sight with us.

We may not be as hard-hearted like the Pharisees, but certainly we are all like the blind man. God in His mercy has come, daubed our eyes with His spittle, told us to go and wash at the Siloam (Sent – Jesus), but again and again we drift back to complacency.

He needs and wants to come to us in His mercy especially in this special time of grace – Lent – so that we find our way to the empty tomb of Jesus.

But to humbly admit we are blind is the first step necessary to light, otherwise our blindness and guilt remains. – Fr Cosmas Lee