Sunday Homilies by Fr. Rudolf V. D’ Souza

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Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 2, 2008 - Year: A
1 Sam. 16.1b, 6-7, 10-13; Eph. 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41
Cast out deeds of darkness and be the light

First Reading...
"The Lord said to Samuel, 'Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.'

When the sons of Jesse came, Samuel looked on Eliab and thought, 'Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord.' But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'

Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, 'The Lord has not chosen any of these.' Samuel said to Jesse, 'Are all your sons here?' And he said, 'There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.' And Samuel said to Jesse, 'Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.'

Jesse sent and brought David in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, 'Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.' Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward." [1 Sam. 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13]

Second Reading...
"Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light - for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said, 'Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'" [Eph. 5:8-14]

Gospel Reading...
"The man who was blind washed his eyes and came back able to see. As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'

When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' (which means Sent). Then the man who was blind went and washed, and came back able to see. The neighbours and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, 'Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?' Some were saying, 'It is he.' Others were saying, 'No, but it is someone like him.' He kept saying, 'I am the man.' But they kept asking him, 'Then how were your eyes opened?'

He answered, 'The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight.' They said to him, 'Where is he?' He said, 'I do not know.' They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, 'He put mud on my eyes.' Some of the Pharisees said, 'This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.' But others said, 'How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?' And they were divided.

So they said again to the blind man, 'What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.' He said, 'He is a prophet.' They did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, 'Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?' His parents answered, 'We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.'

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish authorities, who had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, 'He is of age; ask him.' So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, 'Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.' He answered, 'I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.'

They said to him, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?' He answered them, 'I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?' Then they reviled him, saying, 'You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.' The man answered, 'Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.'

They answered him, 'You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?' And they drove him out. Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' He answered, 'And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.' Jesus said to him, 'You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.' He said, 'Lord, I believe.' And he worshipped him.

Jesus said, 'I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.' Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, 'Surely we are not blind, are we?' Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now that you say, 'We see, ' your sin remains.'" [Jn 9:1-41]

Helpful Event:
One day I visited our cemetery at Mira Road. I used to say to people that whenever they have troubles and problems disturbing them, they should make it a point to visit the cemetery. I would dramatize a whole lot of issues that can be meditated on the cemetery. Issues like when we are totally lost in a relationship, when we feel poor, miserable, rejected, disappointed, they would find an atmosphere there to reawaken a sense of uselessness, a sense of tranquility, a sense of total surrender to God. I used to ask our parishioners to meditate on these wonderful people who were with us one day in the parish, joking, smiling, shaking hands, at times protesting, criticizing etc. are now in the eternal calm of the Father. That day I meditated on one point, what is the will of my Father for me? I didn’t get an answer. But some sense of total peace flooded in my heart. I felt that in spite of my sins and mistakes, there is one who cares for me. Who gazes into my heart, the one who tenderly caresses me. I felt myself on the top of the world. I visited a couple of graves, especially the graves of the young ones who left us recently, through tragic deaths. A tear came to my eye, and a deep sense of sigh, that these young ones perhaps could have made a difference in their families, in their neighborhood etc. I thought for a while, and got convinced that it was the will of the Father for them. I came back with an experience to the parish house. I felt detached from many of my so called vicious thinking and petty attachments. I felt free at least for a while. Now I need to work at these things so that I can try to be free. I was holding this experience till today, and I have shared it with you now.

Today's Gospel reading reminds us of Jesus being the Light. [Jn. 9:1-41] As we heard, it was the story of the man who was physically blind since birth. This reading reminds us that by nature, we are all born spiritually blind, blind to so many multimillion things around us. Our blindness ends when we were admitted into the Body of Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism. By remaining righteousness through the Sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist, we have maintained our sight. Should we choose to neglect our blessed hope and shipwreck, surely, we will quickly find ourselves blinded by the darkness that surrounds us. The real blindness in our lives could be our attachments. Attachments to the way we think that others should be.

Today's Second reading [Eph. 5:8-14] reminded us to live as children of the Light. It presented the contrast between those who live a Christian life versus the pagans. The Christians were compared to the light versus the darkness. Why did Saint Paul feel it necessary to remind the Ephesians of this truth? It was because some men had a tendency of allowing themselves to be influenced by Gnostic teachings. These individuals considered themselves enlightened and above all considerations of good or evil. Surely, pride must have taken over their reasoning.

The lesson that we learn from the first reading of today is that God is free to elect whoever He chooses. Divine wisdom far surpasses human wisdom. Human wisdom is limited to what it sees and what it hears. Divine wisdom searches the soul, knowing every thoughts of the mind. Divine wisdom knows those who are fearful of the Lord, those who are humble, and those who will serve the Lord in obedience. It knows those who will live as children of the Light.

We are all called to be light to others. We should never become darkness. Hence, each one’s duty is to find out ways and means of becoming the light of Christ.

The blind man in the Gospel passage is attached, attached to his own thinking. Pharisees too are attached to their way of thinking. 

What can one do to attain happiness? There is nothing you or anyone else can do. Why? For the simple reason that you are already happy right now. So how can you acquire what you already have? If that is so, why do you not experience this happiness, which is already yours? Because your mind is creating unhappiness all the time. Drop this unhappiness of your mind and the happiness that has always been yours will instantly surface. How does one-drop unhappiness? Find out what is causing It and look at the cause unflinchingly. It will automatically drop. Now if you look carefully, you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is Attachment. What is an attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy. This emotional state of clinging is composed of two elements, one positive and the other is negative. The positive element is the flash of pleasure and excitement, the thrill that you experience when you get what you are attached to. The negative element is the sense of threat and tension that always accompanies the attachment. Think of someone gobbling up food in a concentration camp: with one hand he brings the food to his mouth, with the other he protects it from neighbours who will grab It from him the moment he lowers his guard. There you have the perfect Image of the attached person. So an attachment by Its very nature makes you vulnerable to emotional turmoil and Is always threatening to shatter your peace. So how can you expect an attached person to enter that ocean of happiness called the kingdom of God? As well expect a camel to pass through the eye of a needle!  

Now the tragedy of an attachment is that If Its object is not attained it causes unhappiness. But if it is attained. It does not cause happiness — it merely causes a flash of pleasure followed by weariness: and It is always accompanied, of course, by the anxiety that you may lose the object of your attachment. You will say, "Can't I keep just one attachment?" Of course. You can keep as many as you want. But for each attachment you pay a price in lost happiness. Think of this: The nature of attachments is such, that even if you satisfy many of them in the course of a single day, the one attachment that was not satisfied will prey upon your mind and make you unhappy. There is no way to win the battle of attachments. As well search for water without wetness as for an attachment without unhappiness. No one has ever lived who has come up with a formula for keeping the objects of one's attachments without struggle, anxiety, fear and, sooner or later, defeat.  

There is only one-way to win the battle of attachments: Drop them. Contrary to popular belief, dropping attachments is easy. All you have to do is see, but really see, the following truths. First truth: You are holding on to a false belief, namely, the belief that without this particular person or thing you will not be happy. Take your attachments one at a time and see the falseness of this belief. You may encounter resistance from your heart, but the moment you do see, there will be an immediate emotional result. At that very instant the attachment loses its force. Second truth: If you just enjoy things, refusing to let yourself be attached to them, that is, refusing to hold the false belief that you will not be happy without them, you are spared all the struggle and emotional strain of protecting them and guarding them for yourself. Has It occurred to you that you can keep all the objects of your attachments without giving them up. Without renouncing a single one of them and you can enjoy them even more on a non-attachment, a non-clinging basis, because you are peaceful now and relaxed and unthreatened in your enjoyment of them? The third and final truth: If you learn to enjoy the scent of a thousand flowers you will not cling to one or suffer when you cannot get it. If you have a thousand favorites dishes, the loss of one will go unnoticed and leave your happiness unimpaired. But It is precisely your attachments that prevent you from developing a wider and more varied taste for things and people.  

In the light of these three truths no attachment can survive. But the light must shine uninterruptedly if it is to be effective. Attachments can only thrive in the darkness of illusion. The rich man cannot enter the kingdom of joy not because he wants to be bad but because he chooses to be blind.

When some Pharisees heard the words of Jesus, they said, "Surely we are not blind, are we?" (v. 40) To this, Jesus answered, "If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now that you say, 'We see,' your sin remains." (v. 41) In other words, he who is blind cannot be guilty of sin for not knowing the truth for he is unaware of the truth. But he who is aware of and rejects the truth, claiming that his way is the way, he is guilty of sin. It is only when one realizes the extent of his blindness that there is hope of seeing the light. But what makes a case hopeless is when a person possesses self-satisfaction.

In conclusion, "We must work the works of him who sent (us) while it is day; night is coming when no one can work." [Jn. 9:4] As the blind man confessed Christ before others, through our Baptism we were called to plead the cause of the Light. If we are rejected because of our spiritual calling, let us rejoice, for it is Christ Himself Who is being rejected through our testimony. In the end, the words of Jesus shall be fulfilled, "For judgment I have come into the world." [Jn. 9:39]. Casting out our petty attachments can make us children of light and make us salt of the earth and light so that we are capable of bringing some happiness, I mean light in the lives of those who suffer more than us.

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