By Deacon Jerry Franzen Cathedral March 26, 2017
1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a Ephesians 5:8-14 John
9:1-41
Praised Be Jesus Christ. R. Now and Forever.
Good Afternoon (Morning Evening)
A Gospel about the cure of a blind man,
light
and darkness, sin from several angles,
anointing
with mud and washing with water,
parents’
fear of being thrown out of their church,
a
confrontation with the Pharisees.
Where do we start?
Where shall we focus?
Last Sunday we heard the story of Jesus with the woman
at the well.
At the beginning, Jesus was referred to as just a Jew by
the woman.
“How can you, a Jew, ask me a Samaritan woman for a
drink?”
Later, after Jesus told the woman about the men in her
life
she
called him a prophet.
“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.”
It was miraculous to her that Jesus knew about her
past.
Many times prophets were also miracle workers.
Moses, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets,
was the
instrument of several of God’s miracles:
the
parting of the Red Sea,
water
from the rock in last Sunday’s first reading,
his
staff turned into a snake.
Still later, the woman wondered whether Jesus might be
the
long-awaited Messiah for the Jewish people.
She said, “Could he possibly be the Christ?” (Greek for
Messiah)
And at the end,
the
Samaritans proclaimed Jesus as the Savior of the world.
From Jew, to Prophet/Miracle worker,
to the Messiah,
the one anointed to free the Jews
from
Roman oppression,
to Savior of the whole world.
I
Today’s gospel has a similar progression.
In the beginning, Jesus is referred to as the Jewish
teacher.
“Rabbi, (Hebrew- Teacher) who sinned, this man or his
parents,
that he
was born blind?”
Later the man, cured of his blindness, was asked
to say
something about Jesus.
He replied, “He is a prophet.”
It is not unusual that on the occasion of a miracle,
that
Jesus would be identified as a prophet.
When the man’s parents were questioned about Jesus,
they
refused to answer, because they were afraid
of
being expelled from the synagogue
for acknowledging Jesus as the Christ,
the Messiah,
the
Savior of the Jews.
And again, near the end,
the man
confessed his belief in Jesus as the Son of Man,
the
Savior of the world.
A similar progression, Jewish teacher, Prophet/Miracle
worker, Messiah for the Jews, Savor of
the world.
II
So , what’s the focus in all of this?
It’s
the same focus we have every Sunday.
This week’s Gospel, last week’s Gospel, next week’s
Gospel
about the
raising of Lazarus from the dead,
every
week’s Gospel,
they tell us just who Jesus is:
He is Teacher, Prophet/Miracle
Worker, Messiah, Savior.
The readings from the Gospels are meant
to
prompt us to consider whether we are ready
to bring Jesus more into our lives as
did
the woman at the well and the Samaritans last
week
the man born blind this week,
and Mary,Martha and their Jewish friends next
week.
These are the roles that Jesus seeks to play in each
of your lives.
He is the our teacher, the source of the law, the
commandments,
the
teachings, the directions that we must follow.
Today we heard an example of Jesus, the teacher.
He explained that the man’s blindness was not a result
of sin.
God does not punish sinners by causing them, or their
children,
to
suffer physical maladies.
And in the end, the man born blind,
inspired to become a
follower of Jesus by his cure,
corrected
the Pharisees by proclaiming,
“If
this man were not from God,
he would not be able to do
anything.”
We also saw Jesus in this Gospel reading as prophet/miracle-worker.
And obviously the idea of Jesus being the Messiah was
catching on,
as people
were seriously concerned
about
being expelled from the synagogue
for
following Him.
And the cured man believed that Jesus was the Savior
for all,
not just the Messiah, Savior of the Jews only.
III
So, what’s in this for us?
Jesus fulfills each of these same roles for each of us
in every Mass,
if we
are in tune with Him.
1. We hear the teachings of Jesus
in the Liturgy of
the Word every Sunday.
We might ask: Do I come to Mass seeking the teachings
that govern how I should live my life?
Do we look to Jesus for the truth as we seek to interpret
natural
law, church law and civil laws?
The Pharisees accused Jesus of not keeping the Sabbath
holy.
We might ask:
Do I come to Mass in order to keep the Sabbath holy?
Am I here today and every weekend,
because
this is what I must do to foster
a deeper relationship with God?
It’s so easy to just follow the crowd down the path of
sin,
down
the path of “I’ll come whenever I feel like I need it”,
or down
the path of “I’ll come whenever
there
is hope that I’ll get something out of it.”
Get something out of it? We receive Jesus in this sacrament!
How can it get any better!!
2. Is Jesus our
prophet, the one who speaks to us for God,
and the
one who brings miracles to our lives?
Miracles happen to each of us each day,
though
we may not recognize them,
because
they may not be the ones we are looking for.
Are we open to God’s miracles worked through others in
our lives?
Jesus doesn’t
spit on the ground
and make mud for our healing each Sunday.
He miraculously
gives himself for each of us each Sunday.
Do we come here
recognizing our own infirmities and
seeking
the healing miracle of receiving Jesus
in
Holy Communion?
Do we come here
to learn how each of us
can be instruments for God’s miracles?
Each Sunday, in fact at each Mass, we have the miracle
of our
Messiah being with us and available
to
be received by us.
3. Do we come
here to acclaim Jesus as our Messiah:
the one
we go to in time of need,
the one who will release us from
whatever it might be
that
confines, oppresses or imprisons us?
We can each look back in our lives
and
find experiences that have lead each of us to acknowledge
Jesus
as the Christ, our Messiah.
Are we strong enough and excited enough to acknowledge
this
even
though it might lead
to
our being shunned by someone or some group?
4. And lastly,
do we really believe that Jesus is the Son of Man,
the
Savior for all?
He suffered died and rose from the dead for our sins,
the
sins of the world.
What an act of love!!
How are we proclaiming this to all those around us?
We, like the Pharisees, say,
“Surely we are not also blind.”
I hope that we would all admit that we come to Mass
every Sunday
because
we want our eyes opened more and more
to Jesus as our teacher, our prophet,
our
Messiah and the Savior of the world.
This is the conviction and the enthusiasm for the
Eucharist
that every
one of us needs for our salvation.
AND it is this same enthusiasm and conviction for the
Eucharist
that
each of us must express
to
any non-participating Catholics
that we might encounter
if we expect them to accept our invitation
to
come back to Mass and to the Faith.
This is exactly what will be needed for us to succeed
with the United Catholic Movement.
We cannot be like the Pharisees who saw all that Jesus
did
and yet
continued to find excuses and arguments
to
not be complete followers of Jesus.
