4th Sunday Lent - Year A

At this time in our journey through Lent parishes with RCIA members conduct the second scrutiny.   Our conversion journey becomes more focussed when the elect undergo the scrutiny on this 4th Sunday of Lent.  If the ritual called scrutiny is to be effective, it must touch the reality of our lives, both our individual lives and the shared life of the community and  culture within which we live.  Are we deeply in touch with the conversion process that the elect experience?  This can be judged from the way we reflect over today’s word of God.

In this Sunday’s gospel we see two distinct veins in John’s account of the blind man, one of light, one of darkness. (Jn. 9:1-41) The man born blind is brought from darkness to light.  The Pharisees, on the other hand, who thought they saw, descended into deeper darkness, for they would not see.  Their very obtuseness led the once-blind man to reach the dazzling light of revelation; he came to know who the man Jesus really was, the one who said, “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the World”.

Follow this progression.  To his neighbours, who asked the identity of the one who cured him, he simply responded  “the man called Jesus”.  The light of truth was just beginning to dawn.  Later, when interrogated by the Pharisees, he declared, “He is a prophet!”  Light is increasing.

The Pharisees had him tell his story again; trying to trick him, to prove that there had been no miracle, declaring that Jesus could not be from God.  It mattered not what the man said; he would not be believed.  Still, he boldly proclaimed that if Jesus were not from God, He would not have opened his eyes.  The Pharisees threw him out of the temple and so descended more deeply still into self-imposed darkness.

Learning of this, Jesus sought him out, gently asking if he believed in the Son of Man.  With his response, faith reached fullness, as he declared his belief that Jesus was indeed the Son of man, and worshipped him!

Show your love on the Feast of St. Joseph through ShareLife

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph and reflect on his holy life and the way he loved and cared for Jesus and Mary.

Next week is ShareLife Sunday. May we emulate St. Joseph’s example and share our blessings with the least of our brothers and sisters.

Please give at the parish using a ShareLife envelope, online through our parish website, or at sharelife.org/donate.

ON STEWARDSHIP…

The blind man was willing to let Jesus minister to him and willingly did all Jesus asked of him.

The Pharisees were more resistant to His message, spending their time and energy to disprove the miracle.

Which am I more like, the man born blind or the Pharisees?