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Institute for Homiletics

A Collaboration of The Catholic Foundation and the University of Dallas

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Lent as a Journey from Darkness to Light

Most of us can recognize times when we are “in the dark” and occasions when  we carry darkness in our hearts, just as there are moments when we feel enlightened and find that our vision is clear. It is quite another thing to become identified with darkness or with light. The first words of today’s reading from the Letter to the Ephesians stand out for their boldness: “You were once darkness, but now  you are light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8).  

We get a glimpse of what it means to be light in the Lord both from Samuel,  who finally sees as God sees, and in the courageous behavior of the man born  blind after Jesus has healed him. Samuel anoints Israel’s greatest king, David, and  the man born blind comes to faith in Jesus as Lord. 

The man born blind is one of those strong figures found in John’s Gospel. Like  the woman at the well, we never learn his name but we come to know his heart.  His speech is straightforward, whether speaking to his neighbors, the Pharisees,  or Jesus. You can hear the gradual dawning of faith as he responds to those  around him, from the simple “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I  can see” to “He is a prophet,” to his answer to Jesus’ question about having faith  in the Son of man standing before him, “I do believe, Lord” (John 9:15, 17, 38).  

In the beginning, God spoke. Those first words have never stopped bringing  about what they said: “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). 

Consider/Discuss

  • What does it mean to be darkness? To be light? 
  • Are you open to the light as Samuel and the man born blind were,  willing to submit to it when it speaks to or touches you? 
  • Are you part of a community that strives to live in the light? 

Responding to the Word

We pray to God as the ineffable light shining forth in the darkness, ever creating anew, calling forth from the darkness of fear and prejudice and hatred a community of men and women who choose to live in the light of Christ. We pray God to remove our attraction to the darkness, replacing it with a love for the Light.

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Scripture Study for

Samuel’s choice of David as king was determined by direct command of God.  The anointing was a solemn and sacred action that ceremonially sealed his election by God. Following the ritual, “the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.” This  spirit was understood as a principle of dynamic divine action, a force that had  unique effects in human history. Those seized by the spirit were empowered to  act within the community in a unique fashion determined by the particular needs  of the community. The spirit took hold of judges (Judges 3:10) and prophets  (Isaiah 61:1). This story recounts how it took hold of a future king. 

The move from darkness to light is the principal metaphor used by the author of Ephesians to describe the radical change that takes place in the lives of those  who commit themselves to Christ. Three qualities produced by the light—goodness, righteousness, truth—are symbolic of the complete transformation that this  light can effect. Three phrases describe the transition from a state of inertia to  one of vibrancy: from sleep to wakefulness, from death to new life, and from darkness to illumination. Christians have entered into a new state of being, and it will  require of them a new way of living.

Jesus’ cure of the man born blind suggests a new creation. The struggle here is  between darkness and light, between blindness and sight. Jesus underscores the  urgency of his ministry. He and his disciples must do God’s work while it is yet day, for the night will come when such work will have to cease. Jesus identifies  himself as the light of the world. The man, who is gradually brought from physical  blindness to sight, also progressively moves from spiritual blindness to religious  insight. This is not true of the Pharisees. They prided themselves on being disciples of Moses, but they were blind to the truth that the newly cured man saw  so clearly. The one who was blind sees, and those who can see are really blind.

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Led by the Light

In the Bible, God typically chooses leaders who, while always flawed and sometimes sinful, nevertheless are fundamentally obedient and loyal to God. An exception to this rule was the first king chosen to lead Israel, Saul, who proved to be unwilling to listen to God’s spokesman, the prophet Samuel. Now God chooses another  king, the youngest son of Jesse, who will turn out to be a man after  God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). God looks past David’s youth and  sees a child who, with divine help, will be capable of following  God “wholeheartedly.” And so immediately the newly chosen king receives God’s Spirit, equipping him to rule God’s people. 

The New Testament letters make it clear that receiving new life in Christ entails personal transformation right now, not just forgiveness of past sins and future beatitude. To be reborn in Christ is to be rescued from the darkness of the world and to live in the light of the Lord. This light allows Christians to assess reality from  the divine perspective, exposing “the fruitless works of darkness.” It  also allows for transformation, producing in the individual “every  kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.” It is in this sense that  Christians have already woken up from the death of darkness and now walk in the life of Christ’s light. 

At the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus says he came so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind. The blind man received healing because he knew he could not see (i.e., was a sinner), and knowing it left him open to spiritual healing. The physically sighted leaders, who do see, paradoxically do not see their sinfulness. Their “sight” is illusory; they are just as  “spiritually blind” as the blind man, but they don’t know it. Jesus forces a choice on them: will they recognize that they do not see, or will their hardheartedness lead them to reject the light of the world  (John 1:9) and thus become truly blind.

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Scripture Study for

In the Bible, God typically chooses leaders who, while always flawed and sometimes sinful, nevertheless are fundamentally obedient and loyal to God. An exception to this rule was the first king chosen to lead Israel, Saul, who proved to be unwilling to listen to God’s spokesman, the prophet Samuel. Now God chooses another  king, the youngest son of Jesse, who will turn out to be a man after  God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). God looks past David’s youth and  sees a child who, with divine help, will be capable of following  God “wholeheartedly.” And so immediately the newly chosen king receives God’s Spirit, equipping him to rule God’s people. 

The New Testament letters make it clear that receiving new life in Christ entails personal transformation right now, not just forgiveness of past sins and future beatitude. To be reborn in Christ is to be rescued from the darkness of the world and to live in the light of the Lord. This light allows Christians to assess reality from  the divine perspective, exposing “the fruitless works of darkness.” It  also allows for transformation, producing in the individual “every  kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.” It is in this sense that  Christians have already woken up from the death of darkness and now walk in the life of Christ’s light. 

At the end of today’s Gospel, Jesus says he came so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind. The blind man received healing because he knew he could not see (i.e., was a sinner), and knowing it left him open to spiritual healing. The physically sighted leaders, who do see, paradoxically do not see their sinfulness. Their “sight” is illusory; they are just as  “spiritually blind” as the blind man, but they don’t know it. Jesus forces a choice on them: will they recognize that they do not see, or will their hardheartedness lead them to reject the light of the world  (John 1:9) and thus become truly blind.

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A Different Kind of Seeing

First, there is the seer (a “see-er”) who doesn’t see. Samuel, God’s prophet,  was sent to anoint a replacement for King Saul. When his eyes fell on the oldest son of Jesse, Samuel thought he was seeing the next king of Israel. Eliab had some of the same qualities as Saul: tall, striking in appearance. But God was looking at the heart and the divine gaze turned elsewhere—indeed, outside the room,  to where the youngest of Jesse’s sons was tending sheep. (Ever since Abel, God seemed to be partial to shepherds!) 

In the Gospel, the man born blind is the only one who does see clearly, or rather, who comes to see clearly. As with most of us, he comes to a 20/20 spiritual vision gradually. When they first ask him who healed him, he replies forthrightly,  “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes.” And when they say  Jesus can’t be from God and heal on the Sabbath, the cured man asks how Jesus could be a sinner and do what he did; then he calls Jesus a prophet. Later, he  says, “If he were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.” And, finally,  on meeting up with Jesus again, he acknowledges him as Son of Man and as Lord. 

On the other side were all these seeing people who do not see Jesus for who he was. To really see Jesus, you need faith. This gift will be generously given—in  God’s time—to those who seek it. 

Consider/Discuss

  • How do you see Jesus? 
  • Are there people who do not see who Jesus is? Have you asked God to given them the sight of faith? 

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, you are the light that lifts the blindness from the eyes of our heart,  mind, and spirit. To see you is to come to faith in you as Lord and Savior. Give this gift of sight to those who do not have it. Grant, Lord, that they may see.

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