From darkness into light

The passage we have just heard in the gospel was beautifully illustrated in Franco Zeffirelli's classic film Jesus of Nazareth.  Renato Rascel, the actor who played the part of the blind man was very convincing.  He did not have perfect teeth, he was unkempt and he was rather scruffy.  He definitely would not have been invited to any dinner parties put on by the rich.

It is interesting to note that the gospel account focuses on Jesus who was walking along, and saw this man who had been blind from birth (cf Jn 9:1).  Jesus is always the one who sees us first, even before we are aware of our need for him, he already sees us.  He sees our weaknesses, he sees our hesitancy to come to him, he knows that even though we want to follow him, we are sometimes afraid to approach him, so instead, he comes to us. He recognizes our frailties and even if we cannot find the words or the faith to ask for help, he is always ready to come to our assistance.

What did Jesus see in that man?  All those who passed by him on the street had perhaps learned to ignore him.  There was nothing striking about his features, and his clothing was no doubt dusty and torn, yet Jesus does not see us in the same way that we see one another.  In the reading from the Book of Samuel, the Lord instructed Samuel: Do not look on the outward appearance of the person who stands before you ... for the Lord does not see as the human sees; the human looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Sam 16:7).  Jesus saw his heart, his desire to be cured, and he came to his help.  Jesus sees our hearts too.  He knows how sincere we are when we pray and he comes to our help.

In this telling of the gospel story, Jesus did not wait for the man to ask for his help.  Instead, he spat on the ground and made mud ... he spread the mud on the man's eyes and told him to go, wash in the pool of Siloam (Jn 9:6-7).  Jesus did not ask him to do anything extraordinary, he only asked him to go and to wash his eyes.  The man ... went and washed, and came back able to see.  This man who had lived in darkness all his life was suddenly granted the gift of sight.  Without asking, the Lord had shed light upon him.  What a wonderful gift that must have been.  I wonder how long it took him to stop squinting, before he was able to appreciate his ability to differentiate shapes, colours, people, objects, walls ... all the things he had never been able to fully appreciate before.

Like this man, we too were once in darkness, but now in the Lord, we are light (Eph 5:8).  The global pandemic which we are experiencing at the moment has necessitated the adoption of protective measures that many of us have only heard about, but never experienced.  It seems so strange that the normal social behaviours that have characterized our daily lives have been so drastically altered that now we find ourselves with no sports to entertain us, no gatherings where we would normally be able to visit with friends, no ability to assemble on Sunday for the weekly celebration of the Eucharist.

It truly feels as though we have been plunged into darkness, but our faith encourages us, even now, not to lose sight of the fact that Jesus came to shed light on situations that seem to be the most doubtful.  Jesus is with us, even in this moment.  He wants to open our eyes, and he needs us to be his faithful disciples.  After that man had been cured of his blindness, even the Pharisees began to ask him how he had received his sight.  He did not hesitate to speak his truth.  He said to them: He put mud on my eyes, then I washed and now I see (Jn 9:15).  That encounter could not have been easy for him.  The Pharisees would never have asked those questions without having some hidden reason.  Yet that man was not afraid to testify, to tell his truth.

And what of us?  In these times when we are being asked to implement such drastic isolation methods, do we see these times as a punishment, or are we able to recognize the reasons for social distancing?  Do we think of this experience as an imprisonment, or are we able to see this situation through new eyes that allow us to be present to others in ways that we have not considered for a very long time?  Perhaps this is a wake up call for all of us, a privileged moment to move from darkness into new light, a chance to relate to others with simple gestures like telephone calls, bringing light into their darkness too.  We can still share the good news of our faith.  We can still speak our truth.  We can still proclaim our faith, perhaps with renewed understanding, and like the man in the gospel, we too can say: Lord, I believe (Jn 9:38).