4th Sunday of Lent (A) : 22nd March 2020

Modern culture, with its devotion to movie stars and entertainers, places high importance on how a person looks. One must be young, attractive, well-dressed, and ‘cool’.

It is not so with God. All of the seven sons of Jesse were brought before Samuel for selection as the new King of Israel. God did not select any of them, for God looks at the heart of a person. The youngest son, who was not even present, was chosen — the man we know as King David. God looks only at the heart of a person, and so should we. That is where the true person is found.

Some people have physical blindness, and this is certainly a burden. But there is a much more severe form of blindness — spiritual blindness. Jesus restored the physical sight of the blind man, who also received spiritual sight. He recognized who Jesus was — that he had come from God.

The religious authorities refused to see this, and they rejected both the healed man and Jesus.

The Lord came to restore sight to the blind. Jesus insisted that it was a sin to claim a clear sight when one was blind. So many people are rigid and dogmatic in their opinions and convictions, refusing to see or consider anything else. They claim to have the only truth and to be the only ones able to see the situation. Let us not be like one of them. Spiritual blindness is an attitude, and so is spiritual sight.

Lord, grant me spiritual sight.