Homily delivered by Mark Raper SJ on 22 March 2011 at a mass celebrating the life of Francis George Doyle SJ (4 October 1931 – 17 March 2011) in Saint Ignatius Oratory, Loyola House of Studies, Manila.
Readings: Romans 8:18-29; Response Ps 23; Matthew 11:25–30
Boo Commentary on Jeremiah 7:23-28
The theme of today’s readings is expressed in the final line of the Gospel:
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. (Luke 11:23)
Jeremiah makes strong statements about how God’s people do not listen to his words. The covenant was:
Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.
But that is not what has happened, says Jeremiah, in spite of so many messengers and prophets sent to speak to the people:
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their evil will, they walked in their own counsels and looked backward rather than forward.
As the Gospel of today indicates in Jesus’ confrontation with some Pharisees, when people do not want to believe, there is nothing that will change their minds. They will refuse to acknowledge goodness staring them in the face.
We are not here to sit in judgement on our predecessors. Readings like this are intended to help us take a closer look at ourselves. What we need to do is to ask how these words of Jeremiah apply to us. How carefully do we listen? How well do we carry out the will of God in our lives? How clearly can we discern the presence of God in our daily situations? What kind of influence or force are we in our communities? Are we a force for greater unity or for division?
Boo Commentary on Luke 11:14-23
Amazement in the Gospel does not always lead to faith. People are amazed to see Jesus liberate a man who was unable to speak from the evil power that prevented him from speaking. But rather than seeing here the clear intervention of God’s saving power, they see in Jesus the power of another evil spirit. More than that, they ask Jesus to give some special sign of his authority and identity.
Jesus shows up the contradictions of their position. First, he has just given a powerful sign, but they choose not to see it as such. Secondly, a divided household can only collapse:
If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?
If the answer is by God’s power (the only other alternative), why should they make an exception of Jesus? And, if it is by God’s power that Jesus liberates people from evil powers, then they should know that God’s Kingdom—God’s reign—has come among them. Far from being an accomplice, Jesus is the “strong man” who is driving Satan from all his strongholds.
Both readings today urge us to listen carefully to God speaking to us in our lives. Let us not be blinded by prejudice of any kind, which might prevent us from recognising the signs, the voice, or the hand of God in people and experiences we encounter during any ordinary day.
There are many times when we write off people and events, and as such fail to realise that God is saying something important to us through them. People may be saints or sinners—it does not matter. God can and does use any channel to reach us.
Boo Commentary on Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14—27:66
Some celebrants are tempted to drop preaching a homily today because of the length of the Gospel, not to mention the blessing of palms and a procession. Yet, as this day is the opening of Holy Week, it seems a pity not to say something, by way of introduction, about the meaning of this climax to Lent, and about the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, the high point of our liturgical year. Partly due to traditional and commercial influences, we tend to make more of Christmas than Easter, but in terms of our faith, Christmas only has meaning in the context of what happens in Holy Week and Easter.
The theme of this week and of today’s liturgy is clear. What Jesus experiences for us is a manifestation of God’s overwhelming love for each one of us. Further, by our identifying ourselves with the ‘mystery’ of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, we ourselves experience a great liberation, a ‘passover’ from various forms of sin and enslavement to a life of joy and freedom. Certainly our celebration of Holy Week is not just to be one of memories, or even just of thanks, but of entering, together with Jesus, into a new experience of living. It is meant to be real, and not merely religious, pious and devotional make-believe.
Triumph and tragedy
Today’s liturgy combines both a sense of triumph and tragedy. Very importantly, we are reminded at the beginning, that we are about to commemorate the triumph of Christ our King. We do this through the blessing of palms, the procession and the joyful singing. And the celebrant wears red vestments. We need to keep this in mind as we proceed, in the Liturgy of the Word, to hear the long tale of the sufferings and indignities to which Jesus was subjected. It is a tale not relieved—yet—by the proper end of the story: the Resurrection to new life. So as we listen to the Passion story unfolding, let us keep in mind the Hosannas as Jesus our King entered Jerusalem, his city. Very soon it will be difficult to recognise our King in the battered, scourged, crowned-with-thorns, crucified remnant of a human being.
Why did Jesus have to undergo such a terrible fate? Basically, there were two reasons. The first was political—Jesus had become the object of hate and prejudice by people who saw him as a threat to their religious authority and political standing. He had to be gotten rid of one way or another.
But second, what happened was all in accordance with the Father’s will. That is not to say, as some people seem to imply, that God wanted to kill Jesus and engineered everything to happen that way. There are perfectly understandable reasons why Jesus’ behaviour led to his suffering and death.
At the same time, this behaviour was the result of Jesus’ unconditional love for every person he met—including his enemies. And Jesus’ love for everyone was a mirror of the same love of the Father. It was an agape-love so intense that Jesus was ready to sacrifice his own life for it:
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)
In doing so, Jesus identified with his Father’s will, namely, that all come to be aware of God’s unconditional love for them. (And we might add, we are to have agape-love for those who have made us their enemies as well.)
It is St Paul who says that:
…rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. (Rom 5:7)
But is altogether unusual for one to give up their life for evildoers—and at times, that is what all of us are, in one way or another.
Eyes of faith
What we see in today’s readings is God using perfectly human situations in order to convey, in dramatic fashion, his relationship to us. And it is only with genuine faith that we are able to see the work of God in the tragic death of Jesus. As Paul says:
…we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles… (1 Cor 1:23)
Today’s readings also tell us that Jesus suffered—and he really did suffer. There are those who tend to minimise the sufferings of Jesus because “after all, he was the Son of God, he had a ‘Divine Nature’.” But this is to deny one of the most central teachings of the New Testament, that Jesus was one hundred percent a human being and, except for sin, shared our human experiences in every way. In fact, as a particularly sensitive human person, it is likely that, when Jesus suffered, his pain was more intense than that of others.
Jesus suffered obviously in his body, and he underwent pain that we might associate with the more barbaric forms of torture in our own day. But he must also have suffered psychologically, and this pain may have been even more intense. He saw his mission collapse all around him in total failure. His disciples had all, for the sake of their own skins, taken to their heels. Would anyone remember anything he taught or did? There was, at this special time of need, a terrible loneliness. His disciples fell asleep in the garden when he especially needed their support. They ran off as soon as people came to arrest Jesus. Even the Father seems to be silent—the Father who could send legions of angels to rescue him, but apparently did nothing.
There is the final poignant cry from the cross:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Yet through it all, Jesus’ dignity, power and authority keep shining through, making his captors seem to be the ones on the defensive. After the prayer in the garden, Jesus stands up to face those arresting him full of an inner strength and authority. He stands in silent dignity before his judges, refusing to be intimidated. In the midst of his own pain and indignities, he can continue to think of the needs of others and can, after his own teaching, pray for and forgive his enemies.
How were we saved?
How did Jesus save us? Was it because he suffered and died for us? Was it because he made the ultimate sacrifice? Was it not because, in the words of the Second Reading from Philippians, he “emptied himself” totally and in so doing became filled with the Spirit of his Father? He clung to nothing; he let go of everything (that is what we find so hard to do).
In today’s Gospel reading, Matthew says that at the moment of his death, Jesus “breathed his last”—that he gave up his spirit and died. But it also has the other meaning that the life, sufferings and death of Jesus, when properly understood, released a power into the world, the power of the Spirit of God, a Spirit with which Jesus himself was filled. Jesus’ followers will soon also become filled with that Spirit.
Jesus’ disciples, energised by the power of their Lord and Master, will go through similar experiences to his. They, like Jesus in the garden, will be filled with fear, but later on, they will be filled with a fearless courage and joy. No matter who threatens them, no matter that they are thrown into jail or that members of their communities are murdered and executed, they will continue to preach fearlessly the gospel of Truth and Love. The Passion and death of Jesus, which we commemorate today, was not, in the end, a sign of failure. It was Jesus’ moment of triumph and victory. The same can be said of the long line of martyrs and witnesses over more than 2,000 years.
So, as we participate in the liturgy of Holy Week, let us not concentrate simply on the sufferings of Jesus as if there was something good about suffering. Those sufferings only have meaning because they lead to resurrection, new life and new joy. The pain and sufferings of our lives are not the punishments of God, still less are they to be sought out. Suffering, pain, sickness are not in themselves desirable. They become, however, sources of good when they help us to become more mature, more loving, more caring, more sympathetic people—in other words when they lead us to be more like Jesus himself, when they lead to our own liberation and the liberation of others.
Boo Note: On this, the Fifth Sunday in Lent, we celebrate the Mass for the third and final of the three ‘Scrutinies’. The Scrutinies are special rites that help prepare the Elect (those participating in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) to enter the Catholic Church. The readings discussed in this commentary, while ‘proper’ for Year A, may also be used in Years B and C when there are catechumens present who will be baptised at Easter. Click on the links below for the commentaries on readings proper for Years B and C:
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Commentary on Ezekiel 37:12-14; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45
As we approach Holy Week, we see Jesus come closer to the climax of his life and mission. As he comes near to Jerusalem, the setting for the final drama of his life, the threats of his enemies increase by the day. They are rallying their forces to get rid of him once for all.
The disciples are quite aware of the situation and not very keen on going anywhere near Jerusalem. They are quite alarmed, then, when Jesus says:
Let us go to Judea again.
They remind him about the last time he was there (remember, Jerusalem is in Judea):
Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?
Jesus lets them know that fear and danger cannot be the deciding factors in his life and mission:
Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble because they see the light of this world.
There are times for things to be done, tasks to be accomplished, missions to be carried out. Whatever the risks involved, they have to be done and done now.
‘Lazarus is dead’
Jesus then gives his reason for wanting to go south.
Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.
You can almost hear the reaction of the disciples: “You are putting yourself—and us—in great danger just to wake someone up?! Why disturb him? Sleep is good for him!”
Then they are told bluntly, “Lazarus is dead.” For the believer, death is but a sleep from which one wakes to a new and unending life. And Jesus says he is glad, not because a close friend has died, but because it will be an opportunity for his disciples to know Jesus better, to increase their faith in who he is.
Thomas, the outspoken one, then says with bravado:
Let us also go, that we may die with him.
This could be understood in a cynical sense, but it also expressed the Christian calling to be with Jesus all the way, even into his suffering and death.
The house at Bethany
Jesus now approaches the home of Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary, in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem. Mary stays grieving in the house, while Martha comes out to greet Jesus. (It is interesting how their characters here conform to the image we have of them from Luke’s Gospel, where Mary stays at Jesus’ feet, listening, while Martha is not content to sit, instead busying herself with making dinner).
Martha says,
Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Jesus, already recognised as a source of life and healing assures Martha:
Your brother will rise again.
Martha says she knows, but her understanding is only in the conventional sense of a final resurrection.
But Jesus goes on:
I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
To which Martha replies magnificently, recognising in Jesus the Messiah:
Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.
The profession of faith reserved in the Synoptic Gospels for Peter, is here heard on the lips of a woman. Remember too, that it was a woman, the Samaritan woman at the well, to whom Jesus first revealed his identity as the Christ.
The words of Jesus say two things:
The Master calls
Jesus is still outside the village as Martha goes to call her sister.
The Teacher is here and is calling for you.
The Greek word for ‘is here’ is parestin, which corresponds to the noun parousia, the definitive appearance of Jesus in our lives. When Jesus comes—and he comes every day—he calls us and expects us to respond to his presence with the same eagerness that Mary did.
Grief at a friend’s death
In spite of the deeply symbolical and spiritual language that this passage contains, we come to the very human experience of people faced with death. Jesus himself is overcome with grief at the death of a close friend. The words indicate the intensity of Jesus’ feelings:
…he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved…Jesus began to weep…[he was] greatly disturbed…
Just before giving life back to Lazarus, Jesus prays to his Father. Jesus is no mere wonder-worker. He is simply doing the work of God his Father, the Creator, Source and Giver of all life.
The ‘sign’ about to take place, is to lead people, through Jesus, to the Father who sent him. Union with our God is the one and only meaning of our living.
Many questions
The actual raising of Lazarus seems almost an anti-climax. It is expressed in the briefest language and there are many questions we might have (e.g. What did he look like? How did he walk? What did he say?…), which are simply not answered. The story wants us to focus on the central ‘sign’, which only confirms what Jesus had said of himself:
I AM the resurrection and the life.
It is the fulfilment of the prophecy from Ezekiel in the First Reading. This reading is part of the famous parable of the valley full of dead bones which are brought to life, a parable about Israel, dead in sin and idolatry, being brought back to life in God. In today’s Gospel, Lazarus represents all those who are being brought back to life, life in God. He represents especially all those who are brought into new life by baptism, sharing the very life of God.
As this is the final Sunday of the three “Scrutinies”, today’s reading, like the Gospels of the last two Sundays (the Samaritan Woman and the Man Born Blind), is directed at those preparing for Baptism at Easter. (See the description of the Scrutinies at the beginning of the commentaries from the last two Sundays.) Baptism, as Paul tells us, is both a dying from one’s past and an entry into new life. The newly baptised person is a ‘new person’ with a new life.
For us already baptised, we can do well to reflect on how much we have continued to see that life growing in us. That is the theme of Paul in the Second Reading. Those whose lives are embedded in the “flesh”, that is, those whose lives are given over to their instincts of greed and self-indulgence, can never be close to God.
Those who are in the Spirit will want to give their whole selves to the higher instincts of truth, love, compassion, sharing and justice. When we are full of that Spirit then we have truly risen with Christ, for his life is truly active in us. We are both alive and life-giving. As Paul said:
…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.
(Gal 2:20)
Note: On this, the Fourth Sunday in Lent, we celebrate the Mass for the second of the three ‘Scrutinies’. The Scrutinies are special rites that help prepare the Elect (those participating in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) to enter the Catholic Church. The readings discussed in this commentary, while ‘proper’ for Year A, may also be used in Years B and C when there are catechumens present who will be baptised at Easter. Click on the links below for the commentaries on readings proper for Years B and C:
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Commentary on 1 Samuel 16:1,6-7,10-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
When catechumens are present at this Mass for the second of the ‘Scrutinies’, they are presented to the gathered community which they will soon be joining as full members, and from which they will receive acceptance and support. After the homily, and before the Creed, they will leave the gathered community, because they are not yet full members of the faith community. It is in this context today that we have the marvellous story from John’s Gospel about the cure of a man born blind.
As Jesus walked along, he saw a man who was blind from birth. This man is the hero of today’s Gospel. The Gospel is much more here than just a miracle story about the man—it is a story about everyone who becomes a follower of Christ.
Again, like last Sunday, when we read about the Samaritan by the well of Jacob, today’s story has close links with the sacrament of baptism. In addition to catechumens who may be present, it is also a time for us to understand the commitments that our own baptism entails.
The disciples ask Jesus about the reason for this man’s blindness:
Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus responds:
Neither this man nor his parents sinned…
The real reason was so that “God’s works might be revealed”: in healing him. In other words, it was so the glory and power of God would be made evident before their eyes, so that their own blindness could be cured.
All the way through, the story emphasises that the man was blind from birth. To heal him is to help him begin a completely new life which he had never before experienced. He will be able to experience the light that Jesus brings:
I am the Light of the World. (John 8:12)
To see is to be bathed in that light. If we do not know Jesus, we are living in darkness.
In the beginning of the story:
But in the end, because he can see, he becomes a disciple of Jesus; it is the inevitable outcome.
In the beginning, he was blind—he was in darkness. In the end, he is in the light, not just of his physical sight, but because a deeper insight opens him up to Jesus who is the Light of the world.
Healing
Jesus heals the man’s eyes using mud and saliva. At that time, people believed that saliva could heal, and to some degree they were right. By using mud, Jesus also helps us to recall God’s using mud to create Adam, the first man. Here, too, there is a new creation—Jesus is making a new person. St Paul calls the baptised Christian “a new creation”. Then, Jesus tells the man to wash in the pool of Siloam. This is, as it were, his baptism.
After his healing, his friends and his neighbours discuss his identity—is it really him? But he was blind, and this man can see. Because he has changed, some people cannot recognise him. When we are baptised, when we follow Christ, we too should change. Maybe some people will say, “You are not like the way you were before! You are hardly the person we used to know.” And that is what they should be saying!
Guardians of orthodoxy
Because they were not satisfied, the neighbours bring the blind man to see the Pharisees, the guardians of orthodox religion. Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath and the methods he used were against the letter of the Law. The conundrum, of course is that if Jesus was from God, he would not break the law. And, if he is a sinner, how can he do these things? Sinners cannot do the work of God.
For the Pharisees, sin is breaking the letter of the Law; for Jesus, sin is doing an unloving thing, breaking or hurting a relationship. It is a distinction we need to keep in mind. It is a sin to violate one of the Commandments, not because we violate a law, but because we have failed in the love of a brother or sister. And we can sin even when we do nothing at all for someone in need of our love.
The Pharisees now ask the blind man his opinion. For the man, it is all perfectly clear: Jesus is a prophet, that is, his actions are from God. He measures Jesus by what he did, not by what the law says. But the Pharisees cannot accept this. If they accept, they have to accept Jesus and his teaching also. So they do not even accept that the man was born blind! Prejudice can even blind us to facts.
Pressuring the parents
The Pharisees then try to get the man’s parents on their side. Maybe they will admit that the blindness was only temporary. But the parents know very well that their son was blind from birth, and they do not deny it, but they are afraid to say anything. They know that if anyone were to say Jesus is the Messiah, he or she will be expelled from the synagogue and will no longer be part of the community. In such a tightly knit society, this is not a price they are willing to pay, even for their son. Many Jewish converts to Christianity must have had the experience of being expelled by their communities. Christians, too, over the centuries, and down to our own day, have had this experience.
So the parents say their son is an adult. He can answer for himself. They cannot afford to identify themselves with Jesus against the authorities.
Telling the truth
The Pharisees again ask the man to tell the truth, meaning, to tell them what they want to hear. They say to him:
We know that this man is a sinner….How did he open your eyes?
The Pharisees’ evaluation is based on their interpretation of the Law, which they regard as supreme. Jesus cannot, in their thinking, have opened his eyes.
Says the man:
I don’t know if he is a sinner. I do know I was blind and now I can see.
The Pharisees for the umpteenth time ask:
What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
The man says:
I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?
The man begins to mock them. He is more daring now, not afraid and he asks them:
Do you also want to become his disciples?
Inevitably the Pharisees become angry. They “reviled” the man saying:
You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.
This is a example of Johannine irony, where people say things which have a meaning of which they are unaware—for it is true that no one knows the origins of Jesus. He is the Word who has been with God from the beginning, and he is God. On the other hand, some of this truth is quite obvious to this simple, uneducated man who is the subject of their ire.
The man exclaims:
Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
The Pharisees now become very angry and say to the man:
You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?
The words are cruel and indicate a refusal to accept that people can change and be transformed. We too often tend to condemn wrongdoers for the rest of their lives. But fortunately for each one of us, that is not God’s way.
After this, the Pharisees expelled the man from the synagogue. This is what the parents feared, but their son is made of different stuff. This was the experience of many Jews who became Christians—and the experience of many others who were expelled by their families, relatives and society for choosing to follow Christ.
Found by Jesus
Jesus hears the man has been expelled and goes in search of him. Jesus asks him:
“Do you believe in the Son of Man [i.e. the Messiah]?
And the man replies:
And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.
He does not immediately recognise Jesus in the flesh, for it is the first time he has seen him with his new sight. Jesus says:
You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.
And the man falls down and “worships him” saying:
Lord, I believe.
He sees now also with eyes of faith. He is now a disciple. A disciple is someone who knows and can see and accepts Jesus as his Lord and Saviour. Jesus says:
I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see and those who do see may become blind.
The Pharisees ask Jesus:
Surely we are not blind, are we?
Jesus responds:
If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Those who sin, those who refuse to listen, those who are proud, they are the really blind people. The Pharisees, who thought they could see, were the real sinners. And the man born blind, who accepts Jesus, is the one who can actually see.
Links to Baptism
As mentioned above, this Gospel has a clear relation to baptism. We read it today for the catechumens who are preparing for baptism. They are beginning to see Jesus, to recognise him and to follow him. But it is certainly for us who are already baptised.
At first sight, one might wonder about the relevance of the First Reading from the First Book of Samuel to the general theme of the Mass. The central lesson is that God chooses his own and does not judge by outward appearance. Samuel thought that the eldest son of Jesse, so tall, so handsome must be God’s choice to be king after the discredited Saul. But the eldest son was not God’s choice—God wanted the youngest, the shepherd boy David.
In the Gospel, Jesus sees a future disciple in the blind beggar, and passes over the self-righteous Pharisees who, externally, seemed to be so devoutly religious. Today, too, our catechumens should wonder why they have been chosen to enter Christ’s community when there would seem to be so many others more fitting.
And it is the same for each one of us. We have not conferred a favour on God by getting baptised. It is we who need to wonder and give thanks that God’s way has been made known to us. And we give thanks most effectively by giving back to God the love he has shown us through the love we show to all our brothers and sisters, Christians and non-Christians alike.
The Second Reading reminds us how we were once living in darkness but, through our baptism, are now living in the light. We are, then, to be children of the light, to reflect that light which has been given to us. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:
You are the light of the world. (Matt 5:14)
We might say that we are only living in the light to the extent that God’s light shines in us and through us, giving light to others. The Second Reading tells us:
…the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
But the good and right and true can only be seen when people are good and right and true. So, we are to:
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness; rather, expose them.
There should be no dark corners in our lives.
If we are people of the light, people of integrity, we are not afraid of the light. We have nothing shameful to hide; we are totally transparent. For most of us, that is something of a problem, but let us keep working to become people transfused with light, the light of truth and goodness and love.
For that we need to see Jesus and the Gospel ever more clearly. Then, let this be our prayer today, along with with a beggar in the Gospel:
Lord, let me see again. (Luke 18:41)
Boo Commentary on 1 Samuel 16:1,6-7,10-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41
On this fourth Sunday in Lent, we celebrate the Mass for the second of the three “Scrutinies”. As described in last Sunday’s commentary, the Scrutinies are special rites that help prepare the Elect (also called ‘catechumens’, i.e. those participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) to enter the Catholic Church. Today’s readings from Year A may also be used in Years B and C when there are catechumens present who will be baptised at Easter.
When catechumens are present, they are presented to the gathered community which they will soon be joining as full members, and from which they will receive acceptance and support. After the homily, and before the Creed, they will leave the gathered community, because they are not yet full members of the faith community.
It is in this context that we have the marvellous story from John’s gospel about the cure of a man born blind. The hero of the story is a man who was blind from his birth. He had never been able to see. When he is cured, he will be able to see Jesus as his Lord, something the religious leaders were unable to do.
The disciples ask Jesus, “Why was he born blind? Was it because of his own sins or the sins of his parents?” There was, in people’s minds at that time, a close link between sin and a chronic sickness or disability – one was a punishment for the other. We remember when the paralysed man was let down through the roof at the feet of Jesus seeking to be healed of his disability, surprisingly, Jesus’ first words to him were, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Here, however, Jesus changes the direction of their question.
His blindness has nothing to do with his sins or his parents’ sins. He is blind so that God’s power might be seen at work in him.
He will be the focus of one of the seven great signs which Jesus is seen to perform in this gospel.
A life of light
The story keeps emphasising that the man was blind from birth. To heal him then means the beginning of a completely new life, a life where he can see. He will enter a new world of brightness. Not to know Jesus is to live in blindness and darkness. In fact, this story is an illustration of Jesus’ statement: “I am the light of the world”.
In the beginning of the story, the man is blind – he cannot see; he is a beggar – he has nothing; he is an outsider – no one accepts him. His affliction indicates that he is a sinner or the son of a sinner and as such, a person to be avoided. In the end, when he is able to see, he becomes a disciple of Jesus. In terms of the Gospel, it is the logical and inevitable outcome. Once we really see Jesus, we are hooked.
In the beginning he was blind, he was in darkness. In the end he is in the light, because Jesus is the Light of the world.
Mud and saliva
Jesus heals the man’s eyes. In doing so he uses mud and saliva. At that time, people believed that saliva could heal and, to some degree they were right.
Here Jesus, by using mud, also helps us to remember God used mud to create Adam, the first man. Here too, there is a new creation. Jesus is making a new man. St Paul calls the baptised Christian a “new person”. Then Jesus tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. This is symbolic of his baptism.
Is it the same man?
After his healing, the man’s friends and his neighbours discuss his identity – is it really him? The beggar was blind, and this man can see. Because he has changed, some people cannot recognise him. When we are baptised, when we become committed followers of Christ, we too should change. Maybe some people will say, “You are not like the way you were before! You are not the same person since your conversion and baptism.” In fact, that is what they should be able to say.
Not keeping the rules
Because they are not satisfied, neighbours bring the blind man to see the Pharisees. The Pharisees are the source of orthodox thinking and fidelity to the Law.
Moreover, Jesus had healed the man on the Sabbath, and the methods he used were a violation of the letter of the Law. The conundrum for the Pharisees was that if Jesus truly were from God, he would not be breaking the law. On the other hand, if he was a sinner, how could he do these things? Sinners cannot do the work of God. This led to division among the Pharisees, because they refused to follow out their own logic.
The Pharisees then interrogate the blind man. He keeps telling them just what Jesus had done for him. For him the answer is quite simple: Jesus is a prophet. Sabbath or no Sabbath, his actions are clearly from God. “How could a man who is a sinner do things like this?”
But the Pharisees cannot accept his argument. If they accept, then they have to accept Jesus and his teaching also. So they do not even want to accept that the man was ever blind!
Avoiding trouble
Now, they turn their questions to the man’s parents. The parents know very well that their son was born blind, but they are afraid to say so. They know that now if anyone says Jesus is the Messiah, they will be expelled from the synagogue. They will no longer be part of the community. Many Jewish Christians, known to the readers of this gospel, would have had this experience. Later on, thousands of Christians would have a similar experience, ostracised for their faith in Christ.
Unfortunately, the man’s parents were prepared to sacrifice their integrity rather than suffer such a punishment. So the parents push the argument back to the son: he is an adult; he is well able to answer for himself.
Who is really blind?
The Pharisees again ask the man to tell the truth. “We know that Jesus is a sinner. He cannot do these things.” The healed man stands his ground:
I don’t know if he is a sinner. I do know I was blind and now I can see.
For the umpteenth time they ask, “What did he do?” Exasperated, the man replies: “I told you already. But you will not listen.”
The man is also more daring now, not afraid, and he begins to mock the Pharisees:
Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples too?
This makes the Pharisees angry and they begin to abuse him. “You are his disciple. We are Moses’ disciples. No one knows where that fellow [Jesus] came from.”
In a sense, that is perfectly true because the Word was with God from the very beginning. On the other hand, Jesus’ origins are perfectly obvious as the cured man is well aware:
Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from? God does not listen to sinners. God listens to those who respect him and do his will. Never before was it heard that anyone had cured a man born blind. If Jesus is not from God, he could not do this.
The Pharisees, now very angry, resort to the traditional belief – sickness as punishment for sin. “You were born and raised in sin. You want to teach us?” And they expelled him from the synagogue. This was indeed the experience of many Jews who became Christians. And the experience of many others later on, expelled by their families, relatives and society.
Found by Jesus
Jesus hears that the man has been expelled. He goes in search of him and finds him. Jesus asks him:
Do you believe in the Son of Man, that is, the Messiah?
And, the man replies, “Tell me who he is and I will believe in him.” He does not recognise the man Jesus, for this is the first time he has seen him with his new vision since his healing. Says Jesus, “You have seen him. He is talking with you now.”
“I believe, Lord,” the man replies, and falls down on his knees before Jesus. He is now a disciple. A disciple is someone who knows and can see Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.
I came to this world so that the blind could see and those who see become blind.
The Pharisees ask, “Do you mean we are blind, too?” and Jesus tells them,
If you were really blind [like the man], you would not have sin; but because you say, ‘We can see’, you are guilty.
Jesus turns around their conviction that a blind man is a sinner. Rather, says Jesus, it is those who think they can see when they cannot who are the guilty ones.
There are two kinds of people:
– like the blind man, they accept Jesus’ teaching and are the sheep of his flock;
– like the Pharisees, who refuse to believe, they do not belong to Jesus.
Those who sin, those who refuse to listen, those who are proud, are the really blind people (and immediately following this passage, John’s gospel will speak about Jesus as the Good Shepherd).
The Pharisees, who thought they could see, were the real sinners. And the man born blind who accepts Jesus can really see.
Links with Baptism
This gospel has a clear relation to Baptism. We read it today for the catechumens who are preparing to be baptised and enter the Christian community. They have begun to see Jesus, to recognise him and to follow him.
But the Gospel is also for us already baptised. We also need to see Jesus and the Gospel more clearly. The words of Paul in the Second Reading are very appropriate:
You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth.
On the one hand, Paul is telling us that, like the man in the Gospel who represents all of us, we were also blind and stumbling in darkness. But now we live in the light of the Gospel and the New Testament. And that light is seen in the way we behave, in the way we relate with other people in “complete goodness and right living and truth”. Our lives are to have a transparency where there is no darkness, no hidden behaviour which we would be ashamed to reveal to others. Let us all pray for this.
Boo Note: On this, the Third Sunday in Lent, we celebrate the Mass for the first of the three ‘Scrutinies’. The Scrutinies are special rites that help prepare the Elect (those participating in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) to enter the Catholic Church. The readings discussed in this commentary, while ‘proper’ for Year A, may also be used in Years B and C when there are catechumens present who will be baptised at Easter. Click on the links below for the commentaries on readings proper for Years B and C:
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Commentary on Exodus 17:3-7; Romans 5:1-2,5-8; John 4:5-42
The theme of today’s readings centres around water, and the links to Baptism are clear. Water is the source of life, but also of destruction. We have the story of the Flood, which brought salvation to Noah and his family, but death to a sinful world; the crossing of the Red Sea, which meant life and liberty to the Israelites, but death to the army of the Pharaoh; and the water from the rock for the Israelites in the dryness of the desert. We will hear more about these at the Easter Vigil during the blessing of the baptismal water.
The Gospel is about the Samaritan woman at the well, and it also centres around the theme of water and life.
Marginalised groups
Generally speaking, the Samaritan woman can be said to represent three oppressed groups of people:
The story begins with Jesus showing himself as a person in need—tired, hungry and thirsty. We constantly have to remind ourselves how genuinely human Jesus was. As stated in the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer, he was:
…like us in all things but sin.
He asks help from a person he was supposed to avoid (a strange woman on her own), and also to hate—a Samaritan. She is very surprised at his approach, but her surprise allows Jesus to turn the tables and offer her “living water”. She, understanding him literally, asks how he can give it as he has no bucket. But the water that Jesus will give is different. He says:
Everyone who drinks of this water [i.e. from the well] will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.
Again and literally, the woman wants this water that lasts forever, thinking that she will then never have to trudge to the well again.
What is this water that Jesus speaks about? It is God’s Spirit which comes to us in baptism. The sacrament of baptism is not just a ritual producing magic effects. It is the outward, symbolic sign of a deep reality, the coming of God as a force penetrating every aspect of a person’s life.
And this happens through our exposure to Jesus and the gospel vision of life, and through our becoming totally converted to that vision. This can only happen through the agency of a Christian community into which we are called to enter. As the Second Reading says today:
…God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
It is not just a question of a ritual washing or immersing and saying magic words, but of a real drinking in of that Spirit. The Spirit quenches our thirst, not by removing our desire for God’s presence, but by continually satisfying it.
Five husbands plus
Jesus invites the woman to come back to the well once more with her husband. Jesus’ mission begins with reaching out to a family. But she says she has no husband. Indeed, as Jesus reveals her true situation: she has had five husbands and the man she is with now is not her husband. She is considered a ‘loose’ woman who must have been deeply despised by people around her. It is no wonder she came to the well alone!
The water that Jesus promises is closely linked to conversion and forgiveness of sin. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But the sin must first be exposed and acknowledged. And the focus of Jesus’ attention is not just the woman’s sin, but that of everyone in the whole town from which she comes. Sinner that she is, she will become the agent of her neighbors’ salvation and conversion.
Changing the subject
The woman is staggered at Jesus’ insight into her life. She is embarrassed, and so there is a sudden change of topic to something theoretical and ‘safe’. How often do we do that?
The question the woman asks is about Jewish and Samaritan places of worship: Jerusalem, holy to the Jews, or Mount Gerizim, holy to the Samaritans, or the well of Jacob where they are. But it gives Jesus the opportunity to make another important point. The ‘holy’ well where they are will become irrelevant—so will the Temple of Jerusalem and the mountain of the Samaritans. True worship will be done “in Spirit and in truth”. There will be no more temples. It is not places which are holy, but the people who use them. It is we who are the Temple of God and the dwelling place of Christ.
The woman goes on to say that she knows when the Messiah comes, he will tell all about this. At that point, Jesus tells her that he is the Messiah. How extraordinary! It is a religious outsider, and a multiple adulterer, who is the first person in John’s Gospel to hear this revelation! And, this is precisely because it is sinners (like each one of us!) who need to hear this. People who are healthy do not need the doctor, only the sick.
Amazement
Just then the disciples return. As men of their time and culture, they are amazed to see Jesus talking alone to this woman, this despised outsider. They don’t know what to say. They offer Jesus food, but he tells them he has food they know nothing about:
One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
(Matt 4:4)
Jesus’ food is his total identification with the will of his Father and doing his work:
Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. (Luke 11:28)
Linked with the idea of bread and feeding, Jesus tells them that the harvest is great and it is ripe. And the harvest now includes Samaritans (including this woman) and all outsiders, aliens, unbelievers, and all sinners. It is a harvest that has been prepared by others.
“Stay with us”
Many Samaritans came to believe in Jesus because of the woman’s witnessing. They asked him to stay with them, because otherwise he would have continued on his journey. Jesus often needs to be invited to stay. Remember the two men walking to Emmaus? He would not have stopped if they had not invited him to stay the night. He stands at the door and knocks, but he will not come in unless invited.
As a result, many in that Samaritan village came to believe in Jesus. And they said:
It is no longer because of what you [the woman] said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.
For catechumens, and for all of us, the faith that has been handed on must become our own faith. So that, even if everyone around us were to abandon Jesus, I would not. Ultimately faith is totally personal:
…it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.
(Gal 2:20)
Let us pray today that all those preparing to be baptised at Easter may find that life-enriching faith for their lives.
Boo Genesis 12:1-4; 2 Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9
In order to understand today’s Gospel, we need to put it into context. Peter had just, in the name of the other disciples, recognised their Teacher, Jesus, as the expected Messiah of Israel:
You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. (Matt 16:15)
It was a climactic moment in Jesus’ relationship with his disciples.
But this was immediately followed by Jesus’ explanation to them of exactly what being Messiah was going to mean for him. Far from being a mighty warrior-king who would crush all the enemies of God’s people, he was going to be rejected by the leaders of his own people, arrested, tried, condemned, tortured and eventually executed—not by them, but by the very hated enemies they expected the Messiah to overthrow.
This was too much for Peter (undoubtedly speaking in the name of all his companions) and he objected strongly. In turn, he was severely scolded for obstructing God’s way of doing things. Even more, Jesus had said that if anyone wanted to be his follower, then they would have to be prepared to walk the same road of rejection, oppression, and even death.
Morale boost
All of this must have seemed like a large bucket of cold water landing on the heads of the disciples. What Jesus had said was totally against all they had ever heard about the expected Messiah. It is in this perhaps depressed mood that today’s experience takes place.
Perhaps to give a boost to their morale, to help them see that the way of Jesus would lead to victory and triumph, Jesus takes Peter, James and John to a high mountain. They are the inner circle of the Twelve, and are found with Jesus at other times of crucial importance, like at the raising of Jairus’ daughter and during Jesus’ agony in the garden.
This happened “six days” after the declaration of Jesus as Messiah. It is perhaps a reminder that it was after six days that God called Moses into the cloud of glory on Mount Sinai. Also in biblical times, revelations often took place on mountain tops. There has been much speculation about which mountain in Palestine was the ‘Mount of the Transfiguration’, but it does not really matter. It is the divine significance of a mountain, any mountain, that is being emphasised.
Transformation
As the disciples watched, Jesus was suddenly transformed (Greek, metamorphoo, a rare word in the New Testament, from which our English word ‘metamorphosis’ comes):
…his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as light.
Again, it reminds one of the radiance on Moses’ face after he came down from the mountain where he had spoken face to face with God.
Then, suddenly, Moses and Elijah are seen talking with Jesus. Their presence is very significant as they represent the two great traditions of the Old Testament: Moses personified the Law of God’s people, and Elijah, the traditions of the great prophets.
Their presence and their talking with Jesus indicate their total endorsement of all that Jesus is doing, and also of all that he will experience in the days to come. Jesus is the natural continuation of their Jewish tradition and is fully part of it. Therefore, the disciples need have no misgivings about anything they have heard from Jesus about his coming destiny.
A good place to be
Peter, with his usual impulsiveness, enthusiastically suggests building three tents or shrines for Jesus, Moses and Elijah so they could stay on the mountain. It was a wonderful place to be just then. Often, when things are good, we would like them to stay that way forever. Unfortunately, life is seldom like that and we have to move on. When we are in the cinema watching a film, we can’t shout to the projection room and say, “Stop the movie right there! I like this bit.” Life moves on. It is true of Jesus and it is true of his followers. We have to keep moving forward, and come to terms with the happenings in our lives. In the First Reading, Abram too is told to leave his country and his family home, and go to where God will lead him. God is telling us the same every day of our lives.
As Peter spoke a “bright cloud” covered them. It was no ordinary cloud, but a luminous cloud. It both concealed the unbearable brightness and revealed the very presence of God himself (it reminds one of the cloud which covered Mount Sinai when Moses spoke with God there).
From the cloud comes a voice, the voice, of course, of God himself:
This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!
These are the exact words spoken at the baptism of Jesus. Again, they are an endorsement of Jesus and of all that he will experience, including his rejection by his people and his suffering and death on the way to life and victory.
“Listen to him”
This is directed at Peter and the others. To listen to Jesus is:
So far, the disciples have not been doing this; they have been hearing, but not accepting.
Only Jesus
At the sound of God’s voice, the disciples prostrate themselves on the ground, terrified. They hear the gentle voice of Jesus,
Get up [rise up] and do not be afraid.
Jesus’ words point to resurrection to a new life and the abolition of fear and anxiety. They look up and see Jesus standing there alone; the Father is gone; Moses and Elijah are gone.
From now on they will see ‘only’ Jesus, but after this experience, they know that he is not alone, that he has the full backing of his Father and of the Jewish tradition of the Law and the Prophets. They were learning the lesson that, though Jesus the Messiah would be rejected, suffer and die at the hands of his own people and their enemies, glory and victory would follow.
They were learning that, if they wanted to be truly his followers, they must accept this fully, and that they themselves must be ready to go the same way. If they stay with Jesus, victory, his victory, will be theirs too. If they stay with Jesus, they will have nothing to fear.
Back with the people
Then they came down from the mountain. Being with Jesus means not staying up on a mountain. Being on the mountain was a wonderful experience:
“It is good for us to be here,” said Peter.
But Jesus came down from the mountain to be with the people in their pains and sorrows, in their fears and anxieties, in their sicknesses and disabilities and in their sinfulness.
Jesus’ other name in Matthew’s Gospel is Emmanuel, “God with us”. Jesus’ place is to be with his people, and his followers have to do the same. It is nice to spend quiet days at a lovely retreat house deep in the countryside. It is nice to have a really good Mass with good homily, lovely choir, candles and incense. But most of the time our Christian life is to be spent sharing in the joys and sorrows of our brothers and sisters. We are to be the salt of the earth, the leaven in the dough, the candle on the lamp stand, helping people to know, understand and experience the love of their God for them.
Most of the time we meet Jesus especially in those in need: the hungry and thirsty (in every sense of the word), the sick and disabled and those in prison:
…as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’
We are to find Jesus in them and they are to find Jesus in us.
Boo Genesis 2:7-9,3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
The Gospel of today’s Mass always features the temptations of Jesus in the desert. It clearly links with the Lenten themes of fasting, penance and reconciliation with God and with our brothers and sisters.
In the First Reading, there is a striking contrast between Jesus in the Gospel, and our First Parents in the Garden of Eden. The Second Reading connects the two events: it was the sin of our First Parents which brought about the coming of Jesus to restore our relationship with God. “Oh happy fault!” (O felix culpa!) as the liturgy of the Easter Vigil says of that first sin. The weakness of our First Parents brought about the coming of Jesus and all that he means to us for our lives. It is an example of how even behind unpleasant and, in fact, evil happenings, God’s love can be found at work.
It is not necessary for us to understand either the Garden of Eden story or Jesus’s experience with Satan as being strictly historical. These stories are primarily vehicles to communicate important truths to us.
Led by the Spirit
Today’s Gospel story follows immediately on Jesus’ baptism and endorsement by his Father as his “Son, the Beloved” to whom we are to listen.
Note that Jesus is led into the desert by the “Spirit” of God. The purpose clearly is not to lead him to do evil, but as a testing of his fitness for his coming mission. Will he fail like our First Parents or like the Israelites of old? Or will prove himself worthy of the mission he has been given?
The testing will be done not by God directly, but by the “devil”—the Evil One, the Tempter. It is pictured as taking place in a barren region between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. Jesus, like Moses before him, had fasted for 40 days. He is alone in the wilderness without food. He is hungry, weak and vulnerable. Now is the time for the Tempter to move in.
Who is Jesus?
Each of the three temptations touches on Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, which had been revealed during his baptism.
This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. (Matt 3:17)
The devil then begins:
If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.
God fed the Israelites with manna in the desert. Surely he will feed his own Son? Why have powers and not use them? Why not take this opportunity to prove that you really are the Son of God?
It is important to realise that all temptations—and these tests are no exception—come to us under the guise of some kind of goodness. No sane person chooses the purely evil unless some positive benefit is seen to come from it. In each of the three tests today, Jesus is being led to do something which would seem to enhance his mission as Lord and Saviour.
In responding to the devil, Jesus will not just use his own words, but each time quote a saying from the Hebrew Testament. In this first test, Jesus rejects the offer by saying that:
One does not live by bread alone…
True happiness does not consist in satisfying material wants or in having many things, but in identifying ourselves fully with the vision of life which God gives us through Jesus.
Further, for Jesus to have changed the stones into bread would have been to show a lack of trust in the providential care of his Father, who will see that he has all he needs for his life and mission.
Testing God
Satan’s next approach is to bring Jesus to the highest point of the Temple in Jerusalem. This is God’s very dwelling place. Surely here he will take care of his Son. The devil says:
If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…
Jesus has just shown his trust in God by not changing the stones into bread. Now here is a chance really to prove that trust.
Two things would happen:
First, God will not allow Jesus to be hurt. Now it is the devil himself who cleverly quotes Scripture:
‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’
God promises his providential care in the normal course of our lives, but he never promises supernatural intervention when we do something unreasonable. We are told in the Psalms:
Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved. (Ps 55:22)
And St Augustine said:
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.
God takes care of those who take care of themselves.
Second, if Jesus jumps and is miraculously saved, then everyone will know his divine origin and will believe in him! But Jesus quotes the Scripture back again:
Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Real faith is total trust; it is not, as Scripture scholar William Barclay says, “doubt looking for proof”.
Showdown
After the failure of the first two attempts, Satan now drops all pretence. He brings Jesus to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world. All this can be Jesus’, if he falls down and worships the devil. Is not this what Jesus wants: to bring all the kingdoms of the world into his own Kingdom? Is that not the purpose of his whole life?
It is, of course, an impossible bargain. It would make no sense for the whole world to submit itself to Jesus as Lord, and then for Jesus himself to submit to the Evil One. Yet, it is a bargain we constantly try to make—to belong to God and to go to any lengths to get the things we want—material wealth, success, a recognised standing in the eyes of others, or whatever we deem important to our happiness.
Jesus will put it differently later on:
…what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? (Matt 16:26)
What can one give in exchange for the deep relationship with God for which we were born?
Jesus absolutely rejects the offer:
Away with you, Satan!
It reminds us of one of the words said to Peter when he tried to deflect Jesus from the way he had to go and was told:
Get behind me, Satan! (Matt 16:23)
Symbols of real tests
In fact, these three tests are really symbols of real tests that we find in the life of Jesus.
Jesus did produce large quantities of bread on two occasions, but not for himself, but rather to feed the hungry.
He rejected calls from his opponents to prove who he was by performing some striking signs. He said the only sign would be his own death and resurrection.
After one of the feedings (as told in John’s Gospel), he had the crowd at his feet and they wanted to make him king. Instead, he fled to the mountains to pray to his Father, and packed his ambitious disciples off in a boat and into a storm which gave them something else to think about—their own survival!
Jesus passes all three tests and will continue to do so all during his life right up to the moment of his death. In the garden of Gethsemane, he will beg to be spared the horrors of his Passion, but will then put aside his own fears of suffering and death and accept his Father’s way. On the cross he will make the despairing cry:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt 27:46)
And soon after, in total submission, he will say:
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:26)
The way of the Father is the only way that will lead him—and us—to the life that never ends. And then, all tears will be wiped away.
Boo
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