Questions. So many questions. What's striking about today's account of the healing of the blind man at the pool of Siloam is the presence of so many questions. We begin with a question that Jesus' disciples ask: They wonder who was responsible for this man's blindness, this man himself or his parents. The disciples assume that this man is blind because someone had sinned, a common belief in the ancient world. The blind man's neighbors ask questions, wanting to know how he recovered his sight after he had been healed. The Pharisees, as always, ask many questions about who Jesus is, about how he broke the law in curing this man on the Sabbath. The Pharisees' questions are very condemning; they aren't concerned with the blind man's welfare. The Pharisees do not celebrate his newly restored sight.
In light of all these questions in today’s Gospel, what about the questions we ourselves ask in our search for God in our lives? Depending upon what questions we ask and how we ask them, our questions can either help us to see through the lens of faith, or they can blind us to God's presence. The disciples, the man's neighbors, and others question whether this man was really blind since birth. In asking such questions, they don’t see the joy and the miracle in what Jesus did in healing him. They can only ask what their view of the world and their expectations allow them to envision, which is a very distorted view of reality.
Having been healed, this man is able to live a different life, not just because of his newly obtained physical sight, but because of his newfound spiritual sight. He recognizes Jesus as the Son of Man and the light of the world. The Pharisees were never physically blind, but they were blind in a psychological and spiritual sense. The truth is hidden from the Pharisees by their need to control, in only asking those questions that they hoped would reinforce their rigid view of God and the world. The Pharisees cannot behold the miracles that Jesus performs with awe and wonder, but instead they try to condemn Jesus and trap him.
In our search for God, in our journey of conversion and repentance during Lent, we need to be willing to see things in a new way. We need to ask new questions that will give us honest, insightful answers, that will allow Jesus to challenge our biases and our suppositions, for it is often difficult for us to see God in our lives in a new way, even when it's before our very eyes.
“Our Lord Jesus - Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day.” St. Richard, the Bishop of Chichester, England, prayed those words to Jesus way back in the 13th century. In fact, the feast day of St Richard of Chichester takes place on April 3, so in a couple of weeks. Seeing, knowing, and loving God more clearly: Isn't that at the heart of what our Gospel is about today? Isn't that the heart of our Lenten journey?
The light of God can be given to us in any condition we are in, whether we’re currently blind, or whether we can already see clearly through the eyes of faith. We are invited to recognize God's light in Jesus. For the disciples, the Pharisees, and the neighbors of the blind man, opening themselves up to the light of Christ meant a new understanding of sin, a different way of looking at the purpose of human life, and the meaning of God's actions in human history.
What about us? What blindness do we need to strip away? What questions do we need to ask?
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