Surely We Are Not Blind: Reflections on the Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

If you haven’t already read the readings you can find them here.

1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

This Sunday is also known as Laetare Sunday. It roughly marks the halfway point between Ash Wednesday and Easter. The word “laetare” means “rejoice” and reflects the beginning of the entrance antiphon from Isaiah 66: “Rejoice, ... Be joyful all who were in mourning ...” It calls us, in the midst of our Lenten observances, to look forward to the joy of the Resurrection.

Those who know me know that my favorite book of the Bible is the gospel of St. John. And one of the things I love about the seasons of Lent and Easter is that many of the gospel readings are taken from this book. While my favorite chapter is chapter 6, the Bread of Life discourse, there are many others I like for their richness and for the lessons they teach. Chapter 9 is one of them.

Hopefully your parish will read the entire selection and not opt for the shorter version. So what if it adds a few more minutes to the Mass. It’s the Word of God and it’s Lent. Deal with it! The shorter version cuts out some of the parts I like best, so I will cover them below.

The first reading, which also eliminates many snippets of the whole portion of the first book of Samuel, is about the anointing of David to be the future king of Israel. For a long time the Israelites had no king. Before the time of kings they were ruled by judges. However, the judges became corrupt, and the elders went to Samuel saying, “Now that you are old, and your sons do not follow your example, appoint a king over us, like all the nations, to rule us.” (1 Samuel 8:5) Samuel cautioned them that they would not like having a king over them as he would turn them into slaves, but they refused to listen. “There must be a king over us. We too must be like all the nations, with a king to rule us, lead us in warfare, and fight our battles.” (1 Samuel 8:19-20) Oddly, the reason they were the “Chosen People” was so that they would not be like all the other nations.

The first king of Israel was Saul who was a Benjaminite. This is peculiar because in Genesis Jacob tells his sons that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah,” which is the tribe of David. (49:8-12) Saul disobeys God and the Lord rejected him for his disobedience. Samuel points out to Saul that obedience means more to the Lord than burnt offerings and sacrifices (a lesson as valid for us as for Saul). He tells Saul, “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, the LORD in turn has rejected you as king.” (1 Samuel 15:23)

Today’s reading picks up after Samuel advised Saul that the Lord had rejected him. Samuel goes to Jesse at the Lord’s command, bringing a heifer for sacrifice to avoid contention with Saul (having told him he had lost the favor of the Lord) should he hear of it. At the sacrifice, Jesse’s sons are seen by Samuel who thinks the eldest is the likely candidate. However, the Lord tells him he is not the one because, “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.” They go through all of the sons without God’s approval and so Samuel asks is there another. Jesse says there is one more, the youngest, who is tending the sheep. When David arrives the Lord tells Samuel, “There—anoint him, for this is the one!”

As David is a shepherd, the responsorial psalm appropriately is the twenty-third psalm where David, the shepherd, acknowledges God’s role as shepherd. Elsewhere Scripture refers to God as shepherd, significantly in Ezekiel 34 where we get a prophecy of the Messiah, “I myself will pasture my sheep.” (Ezekiel 34:15) We see more of this in Chapter 10 of the gospel of John, the Good Shepherd discourse (the fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, always has a selection from John 10).

The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (ICSB) tells us that this is a psalm of trust. The phrase “Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life,” indicates that “the psalmist will be pursued, no longer by his enemies, but by God’s loving kindness.” (ICSB) Also, in the table in the psalm we can see the Eucharistic table where Jesus, the Good Shepherd, comes to feed us.

In the second reading St. Paul reminds us that, thanks to Jesus, we are no longer in the darkness of spiritual blindness. And “... light produces every kind of goodness 
and righteousness and truth.” He tells us we have a duty to expose the “fruitless works of darkness.” Related to this, the first three spiritual works of mercy are: 1. Counsel the doubtful, 2. Instruct the ignorant, and 3. Admonish sinners.

Paul goes on to tell us that the source of this light is Christ. “... everything exposed by the light becomes visible” similar to John’s declaration “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5) The darkness represents spiritual blindness. It is like the sleep of death. Thus he says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

Today’s gospel selection also talks about blindness, both physical and spiritual. However if your parish reads the shorter version you might miss the full understanding of this. Most people concentrate on the mechanics of the healing that Jesus performed and the contention of the pharisees, but the very beginning of this selection (omitted in the shorter version) gets to another lesson. The disciples ask Him, “’Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.’” The Jews of the time thought that any misfortune was the sign of sinfulness (recall Job’s “friends” insisting on his sinfulness). However, Jesus’ healing is an example of God bringing good out of a bad situation.

The healed man attests to the fact that his healer must have been sent by God. “If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.” Having been rejected by the pharisees, Jesus seeks him out, asking him if he believes in the Son of Man (the Messiah). When told that Jesus is the Son of Man, the former blind man declares his faith, “’I do believe, Lord,’ and he worshiped him.”

At this point the shorter version ends, cutting out what is one of my favorite takedowns of the pharisees. “Then Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.’” Thus He points out that their spiritual blindness is of their own doing and refusal to see Him as the Messiah, a lesson for us as well.

We often act like the pharisees, declaring that we see but all the while deceiving ourselves about our spiritual blindness. Note that Jesus seeks out the man He healed. He seeks us first. Just as with the woman at the well (last week) Jesus is the one who initiates the exchange. It is up to us to respond to His call.

“All one’s ways are pure in one’s own eyes, but the measurer of motives is the LORD” (Proverbs 16:2).