4th Sunday of Lent
Today's gospel is read in the knowledge that the light of Easter is approaching. The blind man of today's gospel is cut him off from the rest of humanity. He is totally dependant on the guidance and financial assistance of other people. In biblical time, beggar and blind were synonymous terms. In fact, blindness was such a curse, such a disability, it was assumed that the blind man was being punished for the sins of his parents. Even the disciples of Jesus made this assumption when they asked, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?'
The story of the blind man is a parable for humanity. This language has a common currency. We use it in our everyday speech. We often refer to a person as "having a blind spot", or of going down blind alleys; He or she fails to see the entire picture, and, as a result, acts or behaves in a morally deficient manner. We speak of a person being blinded by rage, or by jealousy. Our blindness can take on many forms. Left to our own devices, we are morally blind. If we have no moral or ethical reference point outside our own needs and greeds, blind selfishness takes over; we line our own pockets at the expense of our fellow man. This sort of blindness gives rise to widespread injustice.
Another familiar malady arising from moral blindness is fanaticism. In fact we do refer in our everyday speech to 'blind fanaticism'. So convinced is a person or a group of the rightness of their own cause that they are oblivious to the rights and indeed in many cases of the humanity of their supposed adversaries. In our own day I suppose the blindness of the fanatic is the most dangerous blindness of all. The end product of such blindness is, as we know to our cost, exclusion, death and suffering: 3000 dead in thirty years.
We can be blinded in far less dramatic ways. Petty jealousy can also blind us. If we are selfish or blinded by our own cares and desires, or by own inadequacies, it will be impossible to see other people as our brothers and sisters. My own comfort and welfare becomes my only guideline.
However, as Jesus pointed out in today's gospel, faith leads to sight, to clear vision. The Pharisees in today's gospel, the most learned sector of the population, were the most blind of all. The people with the clearest vision of all were the blind man and his parents. Each of us will have different ways in which our eyes need opening. It could be that we need to see ourselves in a more truthful way. We may need to recognise our sins in a clearer light. But for a very many people their deepest need is the exact opposite: they need to see themselves more truthfully as children of God, loved by him and pleasing in his sight. Many of us are blind to our goodness, to what God's grace has already achieved in us. This blindness to our own goodness and talents is often glorified as Christian humility. But this is a false understanding of the Christian gospel and another source of moral blindness. We should recognise these graces God has blessed us with and, like the man in the first reading, give glory to God daily for them. We can also be blind to the lies that surround us, the false values that are so often paraded as desirable goals.
In his first sermon in his home-town synagogue, Jesus outlined his mission: one of his central ambitions was 'to open the eyes of the blind'. Opening the eyes of the blind was his first step in leading mankind to the vision of God. The gospel then is the torch that God has handed to humanity. Only with the help of its searching beam can we view humanity, our world and our selves in a proper perspective. The experience of this century alone has taught us that when that torch is dropped, civilisation comes crashing down.