Homily Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A To see as God sees
Homily
Fourth Sunday of Lent Year A
Reading
1: “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearances, but the
Lord looks into the heart.” The heart of Saul the King, chosen by God to lead
the people of Israel, had become alienated from God. He was not obedient to the
commands of God, but sought to take things in his own hand.
Because
Samuel was a prophet of God, he sought to do the will of God and not his own;
he sought to listen to the inner voice of God and not his normal human
instincts. God sends Samuel to anoint a new king from the sons of Jesse, who
resided in Bethlehem. The Messiah, Jesus, was from the house of David and was
born in Bethlehem, the city of David. God chooses the least one among the sons
of Jesse, fulfilling what Paul reminds us of: God chooses the least and foolish
and the less likely to be in his plan of salvation, so that the boasting is in
the Lord and not in the person. Isaiah the prophet said: God’s ways are not our
ways; our thoughts not his thoughts.”
The
story of Samuel’s insight is the story of Michelangelo. He tooked a flowed slab
of marble, rejected by other artists, and produced the striking statue of David
the Shepherd boy. Like Samuel, we are to ask for the light of God’s wisdom in
the decision we make daily in life, even decisions that are unpopular or unacceptable
to others.
Gospel:
A man is born blind by natural situations not because of sin. Jesus has the
insight of the Father. He sees the potential of the man that people only pitied
and looked down on. He was living in physical darkness, but there was a
potential inner light within him. His physical sight comes from a new birth,
symbolize by his washing in the pool.
His
new insight develops. First he acknowledges that he is the same man but new and
different. He identifies Jesus first as the man who healed him. Then he comes
to proclaim Jesus as a prophet. Finally, he says that Jesus is from God. He has
new insight, seeing things not from appearance but from God’s perspective. He acknowledges
Jesus as the Messiah.
But
there is another scenario going on. One, his parents out of fear refuse to
embrace the light, which would lead them to the truth. Instead, they chose to
remain in their comfort zone. They did not respond to God’s grace, given them
through their sons’ healing.
The
other group are the religious leaders, who, because of the hardness of their
heart, their self-righteousness, their elitist pride, refuse to allow the signs
of healing, the testimony of the healed to bring them from darkness into the
light. Their sin was in the refusal to seek what God may be saying in this and
other works of Jesus. They chose their own comfort zone rather than the truth
of God’s revelation and insight.
Where
do we choose the darkness of our comfort zone rather than the light of the
freedom offered by Jesus?
Reading
2: When we judge from outward appearances or from a biased viewpoint, we are
living in the darkness. When we seek to see people as Christ sees them, then we
are children of the light. All areas of sin are deeds of darkness; all areas of
virtue and love are deeds of light.
In
Baptism we were delivered from the darkness of sin and given to live in the light
of grace. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation the same occurs. As a result, we
are to live as children of light, which produces fruit of goodness,
righteousness and truth.
Lent
is a time to put aside deeds of darkness, so that the light and life of Christ
can motivate our lives and actions. Does God’s light shine in and through us?
Can people see the life of Christ in us?
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