Spiritual Blindness - A homily on the Man Born Blind

 

With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, it is only seems fitting to begin with an Irish Blessing. One that might be a perfect fit for the gospel today is this one: May those who love us love us. And those that don't love us, May God turn their hearts. And if God doesn't turn their hearts, May God turn their ankles, So we'll know them by their limping. 

In today’s gospel, Jesus and the man born blind would not need anyone to limp in order to know who didn’t love them. In John’s gospel, John distinguishes those who follow Jesus and those who do not by using contrasting images like light and darkness, seeing and blindness, hearing and deafness and so on. Those we encounter in John’s gospel who most often oppose Jesus are the Jewish religious authorities of Jesus’ time, namely, the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. Note how the contrasting image of seeing and blindness is used in the gospel today. Jesus says to Pharisees, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.” Jesus makes it abundantly clear that it is the Pharisees who are the ones who are truly blind and not the man who was born blind.

If we diagnose the illness of the Pharisees, the blindness from which the Pharisees suffer is spiritual blindness. They adamantly declare that it is God whom they adore, but the reality is that it is the Mosaic Law they adore. Rather than seeing the Law as a guide by which to live, they made the Law their God. The Law which they adore is held higher than the eternal and ever-living God. Rather than commend Jesus for curing a man who has been blind from birth, they condemn Jesus for healing the man on the Sabbath, something that is against the Law. In making the Law their God, they are blinded and are unable to see the power of God working through Jesus. In their blindness, they are unable to see their own sin of idolatry, and, as Jesus points out to them, their sin remains.

This blindness is not isolated just to the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. In Pope Francis’ Apostolic  Exhoration, The Joy Of The Gospel,  he writes that the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees has been a problem for Catholic Church, too. Because Church teaching is expressed in a language that is so different from the way people normally talk, it is easy for people to misinterpret church language resulting in something that is actually contrary to the authentic gospel of Jesus Christ. He writes, “With the holy intent of communicating the truth about God, the Church sometimes gives the faithful a false god or a human ideal which is not really Christian.” In this way, we hold fast to a formulation of [Church] law while failing to teach the substance [of the law or the meaning of the law].”

Spiritual blindness is a problem in all world religions. As human beings, we love to make God into our own image. Throughout history, humanity has often been blinded by attempts to fix and fit God into nice, little, neat boxes that we can use and control. However, God is far too great to fit into the narrow confines of what human beings think God should be. St Paul writes in his letters, “Who can know the mind of God?” He answers his own question by saying that only God can know the mind of God, we certainly can’t.

The spiritual blindness of the Pharisees is not just something that is isolated to religion, but is found in all areas of human life. When we cannot fit God in the narrow confines of the human philosophies, or the human political and economic ideologies that we may adore, we make those same philosophies and ideologies our gods. Tragically, humanity as found that the gods we create turn on us instead, imprisoning us and controlling us.  Whether it be a golden calf or some human ideology, idolatry is idolatry, and the sin remains.

What prescription can treat Spiritual blindness? “May those who love God love God,”  to restate the first line of the Irish Blessing. We must see if we suffer from spiritual blindness. In order to do so, our first need is to do a serious spiritual inventory of our own lives. What are our values? In what do we invest the majority of our time and energy? How does the Great Commandment of Jesus to love God with all our hearts, minds, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves guide the decisions and the direction of our lives? What is intent behind everything that we do? Is that which we do arise out of our loving God with all our hearts, minds and strength? Is that which we do arise out of our love for our neighbor? Or is that which we do just only about pleasing ourselves? The prescription for spiritual blindness is applying the Great Commandment in all areas of our lives.

The 2^nd part of the Irish Blessing states, “And those who don’t love God, may God turn their hearts." Pope Francis says that we need to place as a high importance in our lives the need for everyone to be touched by the comfort and attraction of God’s saving love, which is mysteriously at work in each person, above and beyond their faults and failings. We are the instruments by which God turns human hearts. There are many educators who have been approached years later by former students and told what an impact the educator had on their life. The same can be said about grandparents, parents, neighbors, and people from all walks of life who touch and impact the lives of others in positive ways. God’s love reaching out of ourselves to others is very powerful.

Pope Francis writes, we must first embrace the Gospel of Jesus which ”invites us to respond to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the good of others.” Pope Francis continues that we must go forth as missionaries of Christ’s love to everyone without exception; not just to our friends and neighbors, but above all to the poor and the sick, to those who are usually despised and overlooked, to “those who cannot repay us”, in other words, to all “the man born blind” that we find in our lives. It is they, Pope Francis says, who are the privileged recipients of the Gospel.” The fact that the Gospel is freely preached in our service to them, is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish.

May those who love God, love God. And those who do not love God, may God turn their hearts, And if God doesn’t turn their hearts, may God turn their ankles, so that we will know them by their limping.

Jesus reached out to the man born blind and healed him on the Sabbath. We are challenged today to make a commitment to live the Gospel of Jesus and see, or to follow the example of the Pharisees and remain blind. How will God know us? Will it be by our love, or by our limping?