Fourth Sunday of Lent

Jan 24 2025

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 awakened 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?

Jan 24 2025

Born Again—from the Inside Out

Nicodemus, the Jewish leader, came to see Jesus at night. He wanted answers. But why did he prefer to come in the darkness and not in the light? Was he was concerned about his reputation, protecting his “street cred”?

Is that what we’re living for— “street cred” or the number of “likes” that we get? Does the number of our social media “followers” determine our worth? “Looking good” is what an older generation calls it. “Saving face” is critical to the politics of many nations.

We do need encouragement. Affirmation is necessary for human growth. But some positives can turn into compulsions. An institution can be overpowered by a fixation on safeguarding its reputation. You and I can be personally overwhelmed by the culture of applause.

A young man once talked to me about how he had gained “street cred” for looking like “a good Catholic boy” at a Catholic college. He got affirmation for attending Mass daily. It felt good. But the Holy Spirit asked him in prayer to start over, to shed that mere living for external approval that had birthed his persona, and to make it new from the inside. He began to focus on integrity, to be reborn from within—not just to look good, but to be good. It felt healthy to start afresh.

Maybe Nicodemus was weary of the posturing that swirled around him. Maybe he came to Jesus because he saw a refreshing grace. Jesus suggested to Nicodemus, “Start over, begin anew.” He extended a hand to help this Pharisee begin again, differently—to come out of the darkness and into the light.

What Jesus tells Nicodemus (and us) in John 3:16, that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” isn’t just a placard to be displayed proudly at sporting events. By grace, we can start over. The Savior rescues us from living for the external applause of life, and rebirths us from within.

Consider/Discuss

We need affirmation to keep loving and giving and not to get discouraged. But what about the incessant pressures to “look good”? Can an addiction to applause and being liked throw us off balance? What happens to our self-worth when nobody claps? On the other hand, what can happen to our interior equilibrium if too many people applaud us? What kind of inner integrity does the Holy Spirit want to grow within us?
Where do we find the grace to “start over?” Grown-up life is no longer innocent. We have hurt others. We also have been hurt. We ought to be condemned for the deeds that we have done in darkness. When have you (or have you not) experienced Jesus’ hand of forgiveness as he says, “I do not come to condemn the world but to save it”?

Living and Praying with the Word

God of glory, you are fresh, you are new. There are times when this world wearies us with its posturing and demands. On this Lenten day, we turn to you for forgiveness and renewal. Give us the grace to begin again. Help us! As we close our eyes to seek you, the blessed light within, you even more are looking for us and drawing us to yourself. Holy Spirit, turn our hearts toward the goodness that is founded only on your love and your truth. Refresh us so we can be reborn anew this day.

Jan 24 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading brings us to the period after the Exile, when newly-redeemed Israel looks back on its history. The author juxtaposes the continued infidelity of his people with the enduring commitment of God. Even before they entered the land, Israel turned away from their God and toward other deities, the “abominations of the nations.” God warned them of the consequences, but they did not listen, until finally they went into exile. Once again, God has shown mercy, bringing them back to the land and reestablishing the divine presence among them. Divine graciousness, human infidelity, judgment to bring the people back to God, forgiveness and restoration: this is the pattern of God’s dealings with the chosen people that we find throughout the Bible.

Paul emphasizes God’s graciousness and goodness, which has been shown not just to the Gentile Christians of Ephesus, but to the whole church. God is “rich in mercy,” has “great love for us,” “brought us to life with Christ,” has shown “the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus,” which is a “gift of God.” This is no grudging salvation Paul proclaims, but great-hearted goodness from a God who wants only to give life in place of death. All those who have been baptized into Christ now in some sense enjoy the full fruits of redemption; they are “seated . . . with [Christ] in the heavens.” This “realized eschatology,” which from the human perspective is yet to come, has in fact already been accomplished in Christ.

Again this week we see Jesus as the fulfillment of a “type” from the Old Testament. In this case, it is the bronze serpent that Moses had made to heal the Israelites (Numbers 21:4–9). The larger point Jesus makes to Nicodemus is that the love of God for the world is almost beyond belief: God has gone so far as to “give his only Son.” On the one hand, this gift is simply the Incarnation itself, which makes manifest on earth the glory, grace, and truth of God (1:14). On the other hand, this gift is the saving death of Christ. Sadly, it is not accepted by all because to accept is to open oneself to the “true Light” (1:9). As with many other instances in this Gospel, the presence of God in Christ forces a decision that one is unable to avoid making.

Jan 14 2025

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.

Jan 14 2025

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.