Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Malcolm Muggeridge, a well-known British journalist and author, made a movie of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and he described filming the Home for the Dying in his book on this saint. He was worried because the lighting in that room was very poor and so they did some filming outside as well. He was very amazed that when they looked at the results of the shooting. The room in the Home for the Dying was a particularly beautiful soft light and the film from outside was blurred and dim. He took this to mean that the love of Mother Teresa and the sisters for the people dying was luminous and it was caught this way on film. Malcolm Muggeridge, who as a result of his contact with Mother Teresa, became a Christian sometime after this encounter. He said of her that, “She was a light that could never be distinguished.”
The blind man in the gospel this week (John 9: 1-41) would have said even more of Jesus Christ. When a man is enlightened by Christ he is not afraid to confess him to the world. He grew increasingly bold in his contact with the Pharisees. Imagine the darkness of a person who has been blind his whole life. And Christ gave light to his body, and then his soul. There are many theories on where this man served as a disciple of Christ. We know for sure that he must have given a fantastic experience of that day.
Maybe our encounter with Christ is not as dramatic. But it is good to consider that we don’t have a right to this light; it is a total gift from God. Every baby comes into the world in a temporary state of blindness. Original sin blinds us. In the ancient world saliva was thought to be like salt; it was medicinal. Even in Jesus’ spit there is life. Christ gives this man salt and light as he washed in the pool of Siloam, which means sent. He sends this man to the pool, to baptism in order to see, as he does for us. One of John’s favorite names for Christ is the “One Who is Sent.” He is sent by the Father to give us light.
This gospel is a baptismal gospel. Baptism in the early Church was called Enlightenment. The spreading of mud on the blind man’s eyes is his anointing. When anointed by Christ one can really see. His eyes must have been very sensitive, as they are for all blind people. The Lord often irritates us before he illumines us, as he did to this man. Let Jesus wash you so that you may really see.
He is beaten up pretty badly by the Pharisees and they even call his parents who are very guarded. But there is one thing that he is certain about that gives him this courage to say the truth. Before he was blind and now he can see. This pandemic gives us a chance to speak about the one thing that matters, the one thing that we are certain about. One day we will die and if we believe in Christ we are not afraid to live or to die.
Christ rejects the complacent that trust in their own light, as opposed to the humble that is typified by this blind man. The smugness of their religious leaders makes them hopeless to see the wonder of this miracle.
John’s gospel is full of irony. The Pharisees tell the blind man: give glory to God, which is another way of saying tell the truth. He shows in irrefutable logic that only God can cure one blind from birth. How could it be otherwise? No one has ever done this before. The nature of truth grows; it becomes clearer when it is questioned. He is totally convinced about one thing: he was blind and now he can see. We have to say the truth to receive the Light. This is especially true in Confession. When we say our sins, suddenly we are free of them.
The blind man didn’t come to Christ; Christ went out to him, and we need to be Christ going out to others. Just prior to this gospel the Pharisees almost stoned him, then he reached out to this man and cured him. When we are rejected, reach out to the one in need, which are many these days, and your sadness will go away.
If the Pharisees humbly acknowledged their blindness, they would have been enlightened. If they were blind or didn’t know much about the Scriptures or the ways of God, their sin would be less culpable, less serious. But since they said, we know it all, their sin is great. We can fall into the same trap.
St. Charles Borromeo in the 1570’s was responsible for 70,000 people who were starving or dying from the plague. He made a procession praying for their recovery and had no concern about his health or his death, which for him was like stepping into heaven. He also liked to play billiards. When asked what he would do if he were to die that day, he said he would continue playing billiards. He was not afraid to live or to die. He shows us how a Christian should live, especially in these times.