Let us recall the grand themes of these Sundays in Lent. Passages of John’s Gospel
John 4 – the Samaritan woman meets Jesus at the well, and comes to believe his word that he is the Messiah. She then starts to speak openly about this incredible new thing that has happened in this meeting.
John 9 – Jesus heals the man born blind, who not only comes to see with his natural eyes, but – even better – encounters salvation by coming to believe that Jesus is the Savior. And we get to “see” clearly the pride of Jesus’s opponents, who pride themselves on knowing more than everyone, but who can’t “see it” when a verifiable miracle happens in front of them.
John 11 – Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead after 4 days in the tomb, showing a sign that his power to give life, and transform lives, is supreme and unconquerable. (We note that Jesus is the only person ever to hold this power in his own name.)
Would that every Catholic Church were praying fervently and annually for the transformation of life for many elect catechumens who shall become full Christians at Easter. Today let us pray for them that the lessons of the Gospel of the man born blind will imbue their souls with virtues. First of all, humility.
In preparing to receive the sacramental graces of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist, the elect should remember this is the first of many times where you must heed the words of Jesus: “whoever exalts himself will be humbled. But whoever humbles himself will be exulted.” True humility gives strength. Pride is an inherent weakness. The strength from true humility comes from being attached to the truth of God; and be warned that false humility always involves a lie of some sort. The weakness within a proud attitude might be masked by many good attributes of a person. But the weakness is there; a kind of self-confidence what puts a glass ceiling on your life of holiness.
In order to overcome self-sufficiency, realize that our gratitude to God is not yet sufficient for the good things he has given. So many of the good things in our lives we could rightly acknowledge that they came from others – which is to say from God who governs the circumstances of our lives – and not from ourselves. We should be completely overcome with gratitude! And what about those things in our lives which we feel like we have achieved by our own efforts, by our time, our work, our practice, our study? Thank God for the gift of all creation and the very miracle of human life and the immense depths of the human soul (and heart and will) which allowed you work, to practice, to study, to labor in the first place!
Here let us bring up a phrase used in last week’s Gospel with the Samaritan woman. Jesus promised her this great news, that the time had come when “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” Of the man born blind we see his response, “‘I do believe, Lord,’ and he worshiped him.” He worshiped the Word become flesh. He worshiped the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
We should admit the truthfulness of humility as a truth that connects us to God. When we truthfully acknowledge that we cannot “see all,” and that we are limited creatures in need of God… then we have the humility to experience the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus came so that “those who do not see might see… If you were blind [like the man just healed here, not having grown proud in your life], you would have no sin.” O how happy we would be!
But if you insist that you are among those who are “self-sufficient,” then “those who do see might become blind.” Yes, “now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.”
Again, we pray that this fogginess of sin is felt by all of us with more and more gratitude. May those who are to be baptized go from joy to joy humbly acknowledging the gift God has given. They have encountered Christ, and preparing to worship him in truth, should thank him with more and more humility.
Ubi Petrus VT 