FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT: YEAR A SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT: YEAR A

SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS

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ENTRANCE ANTIPHON

♥ The entrance antiphon of today uses the phrase: “Rejoice…” 

♥ Because today is Laetare Sunday

♥ Doctors of the Law were not able to rejoice over the fact that the man born blind was able to see.

♥ I had a similar experience. One girl was allowed by the parish priest to receive communion after a long time. When the leaders came to know about it, they came immediately to the parish priest to object to the fact that she came to meet the parish priest without the permission of the leaders. One of them told me: “Fr. Blasius! you know things. You should have informed us.” They were more worried about the permission that was not got from them than the daughter who was able to receive Jesus, who came one step closer to Jesus. They could not ‘rejoice’ over the fact that one of their daughters was brought one step closer to God.

COLLECT

♥ Today’s collect uses the phrase: “…O God who through your Word reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way…”

♥ Jesus said: “This man is born blind so that God’s wonder may be displayed in him” God reconciled the blind man with God. The man after being healed he knelt down before him. This is reconciliation with God in Christ Jesus. But the doctors of the Law could not reconcile with the fact that Jesus was a prophet, the son of God. Instead they called him a “sinner”.

ACCLAMATION

♥ The acclamation of today says: “I am the light of the world”

♥ Light of the world was with them and the doctors of the law could not recognize him. They were celebrating the feast of the tabernacle, the feast of light but they were blind to the “real light” as the creed says “ light from light”. John the Baptist was not the light. He came to show the LIGHT. …And we have seen his “glory”. Oh my God!!!!. Its so cute, so awesome. And the Doctors of the Law could not see that.

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS

♥ Here we find a phrase: “…We place before you with JOY these gifts…”

♥ Have we come to this church joyfully praising God for his graces and blessings.

 COMMUNION ANTIPHON

♥ Here we find a phrase: “…The Lord anointed my eyes…”

♥ We need to ask the Lord to ANOINT our eyes that we may see him, SEE the good things of life and  the world.

♥ Job says: “I have made a covenant with my eyes not to see women [men] lustfully.”

♥ Our yes are the doors and windows to the heart. What  we see in the internet, mobiles…. will enter our heart and mind.

FIRST READING

♥ God looks at the heart. Human beings look at the physical appearance, qualification, bank balance, height….

♥ They could not see David. But God saw him and called him. Human beings will see appearance but God will look at our heart.

♥ This thought can liberate you. Make you free to serve others better. It will free you from human respect. Last Sunday the Samaritan woman was made free. She became the first evangelist. So beautiful.

♥ Samuel anointed David in the midst of his brothers. They rejected him but God accepted him. Mary sang this reality in her song of praise. He will lift up the lowly and brought down the proud.

♥ Responsorial Psalm says: “You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes. My head you have anointed with oil”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

♥ The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.

♥ A shepherd goes ahead of the sheep. In the life of St. Francis de Sales he had a seminarian. And Francis could see that his [seminarian] guardian angel was going in front of him every time. But after his ordination Francis saw that his guardian angel went behind him. He lost the grace of ordination. It can happen to anyone of us. It happened to the doctors of the Law. The Doctors of the Law had lost that. Today the psalmist says:” He guides me along the right path. He guides be by walking in front.

SECOND READING

♥ Live as children of God. Do what is pleasing to him. Take no part in the unfruitful work like the doctors of the law. Expose the unfruitful work. Become transparent in your life especially with regard to your vow of poverty, chastity and obedience, in your dealings with others. When we are in the light everybody can see us. We are transparent.

GOSPEL READING

♥ Sometime blind people are: very aware of spiritual reality. They understand more about God. They have more to give.

♥ We can ask ourselves today: Am I blind?

♥The man could not commit sin in the womb because he did not exist. He was born blind so that works of God could be displayed in him.

♥ LIFE: God is love. He loves life. That is why he came. I have come that you may have life and life to the full. The Responsorial Psalm is saying that. He leads me to the green grass, and fresh waters…. This signifies life. And how can he make someone blind because of his sins or the sin of somebody else.

♥ AS LONG AS WE HAVE LIGHT/ we have life we need to work for the kingdom of God. It will be dark soon. We will die soon. The death cannot praise you, those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. So do good as long as God is with you. As long as you are in the light, in God's favour. If God is not with you you cannot work. It will not be God’s work

♥ JESUS MADE A PASTE: This reminds me that I am dust and to dust I shall return.

♥ Siloam: “Journey of the soul…. Life to wholeness.” This is what is written in Siloam, Barapani. The blind man was made whole. Our baptism made us whole. Are we still whole or we have destroyed this wholeness.

♥ THE MAN COULD SEE: It is so beautiful he could see water, eyes nose yes for the first time. He could have seen children running around. My God! It’s fabulous.

♥ PEOPLE’S REACTION: Some said “yes” this is the man, some said no he looks like him. Doctors of the law questioned him. His own parents were afraid to accept the fact. They were scared. People hardly bother about what happens to you. Why do you waste your time in thinking what others will say. What are they thinking about you.

♥ I DON’T KNOW: Oh my God! Jesus is so humble. After curing him he disappeared. The man does not even know where he went. If I had performed that miracle I could have been there around to see what others are saying; to see what colour the eyes are….. but not Jesus. “For I am meek and humble of Heart.” Yes he is .

♥ Two things happened: 1) a man born blind 2) Jesus made little paste. And the doctors of the Law were lost with that “little past.” We make mountain out of molehills.

♥ QUESTION: They questioned the man so many times: because they did not get the answer they wanted.

♥ They were waiting for the Messiah and when he came they could not recognize him.

♥ SABBATH AND EYEBALL: they said that Sabbath came before the eyeball. They were so much attached to their dry traditions.

♥ PARENTS:  They were not grateful. If they were grateful they could have inquired: son where is the man who cured you. We want to meet him, we want to thank him…….

♥ How many of us suffer from human respect. Afraid all the time as to what others will say... If I say this that person will not love me... They will think less of me... Last Sunday, the Samaritan woman lost all her human respect after meeting Jesus and she ran to the village to meet them and tell them. She became the first evangelist.

♥ We have more fear of men and society than God who will judge us. Man may take away my job, may fire me, or kill me. But God…? You have to be strong today to say that you love Jesus, that you cannot say lie or cheat.

♥ DISCIPLE: The man said: “So you want to be his disciples as well.” They said: “we are disciples of Moses”. Oh my God. If Moses were to be there he could have bowed down in front of Jesus.

♥ YOU DON’T KNOW?  He opened my eyes and you don’t know who he is. You are doctors of the law.

== Three cheers to this man. When I go to heaven He will be the first guy I want to see. Yes he has guts.

♥BLIND MAN WITH BETTER KNOWLEDGE THAN THE DOCTORS OF THE LAW: He said: “God listen to the man who is devout and do his will.

== ever since the world began nothing of this sort has happened….

If he were not of God, he could have not done this…

== see how much he knows. He knows more than the doctors of the Law

== he is giving them sermon. with four years of my theology i cannot give better sermon than this blind man.

== if they were humble … they could have said thank you

♥ SUFFERING: we may suffer a lot but Jesus Knows us. He looks at our hearts not at our appearance.

 ♥ We need to grow in the knowledge of God daily as the blind man grew in the knowledge of him, prophet, son of man,  son of God. At the end he said my Lord.

♥ Are we blind to the poverty, injustice that are around us.

♥What is the root cause of our blindness? Self-contentedness.

♥ William Berkeley: "God our Father we pray that we may see him more clearly, love him more dearly and follow him more closely". Amen.

Third Sunday of Lent: Year A A Soul Thirsting for God

Third Sunday of Lent: Year A

A Soul Thirsting for God

Entrance Antiphon

♥ The entrance antiphon of today uses the phrase: “…My eyes are always on the Lord…” (Pa 24: 15-15)

♥ When my eyes are on something, I desire that thing, I thirst for that thing.

♥ Samaritan Woman: She was thirsty for love, her eyes were on so many men except on the Lord: she said: “give me that water that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw”

♥ Where do you go to find that water, Do you see that water in the Eucharist, in the Word of God?

Collect

♥ Today’s collect uses the phrase: “… we, who are bowed down by our conscience…”

♥ When the Lord said: “Call your husband” the woman was disturbed by her conscience.

♥ Do we listen to our conscience? 

Acclamation

♥ The acclamation of today says: “Lord! you are the savior of the world”

♥ The woman progresses very fast in recognizing Jesus’ true identity: you are a Jew, Prophet, Messiah, Christ, My savior, savior of the World. He is not only for me, for Christians but for the world.

♥ The more time we spend with the Lord the better we come to know him and know ourselves.

Prayer over the gifts

♥ Here we find a phrase: “…we may take care to forgive our neighbour…”

♥ The Lord forgives us and so we need to forgive our neighbours. The Lord forgave the woman at the well and she forgot what people were saying against her.

Prayer after Communion

♥ Here we find a phrase: “…we are nourished while still on earth with the Bread that comes from on high…”

♥ In the Eucharistic celebration, we are in fact at the well of our Lord who is waiting for us to give us the bread/ food/drink of eternal life.

♥ We receive God himself in the Eucharist. It is so profound a reality.

♥ John 6:35 Jesus answered them: I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever hunger; no one who believes in me will ever thirst. (Jn 6:35 NJB)

First Reading

♥ People thirsted there for water and they murmured against Moses

♥ We thirst for material/worldly things: power, position, authority, money, wealth, comfort, private time and when we don’t get, we murmur like the people in today’s passage. We don’t thirst for God.

♥ Seek first the kingdom of God and everything will be given to you

♥ Water from the rock: It is impossible for a human being to take out water from the rock.

♥ Psalm 114:8 who turns rock into pool, flint into fountain (Psa 114:8 NJB)

♥ 18:14 Nothing is impossible for Yahweh. I shall come back to you at the same time next year and Sarah will have a son.' (Gen 18:14 NJB)

♥ Jeremiah 32:17 "Ah, Lord Yahweh, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. To you nothing is impossible. (Jer 32:17 NJB)

♥ Luke 1:37 The angel said to Mary: “for nothing is impossible to God.” (Lk 1:37 NJB)

♥ Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." (Mk 10:27 RSV)

Responsorial Psalm

♥ “Come in; let us bow and bend low; let us kneel before the God who made us for he is our God and we are the people who belong to his pasture, the flock that is led by his hand.”

♥ This is the reason why we need to worship God

“…because he is our God and we are his people…” The woman says: “and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

♥ We need to worship God in our heart/in the church/in the sacraments/, in spirit and in truth.

♥ Deuteronomy 6:5 You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. (Deut 6:5 NJB)

Second Reading

♥ St. Paul speaks about God’s love for his people. He is talking about the Holy Spirit, Peace. Jesus too is speaking to the woman at the well about his thirst for love/faith of the woman, about the gift of God which is the Holy Spirit and one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is peace.

Gospel Reading

♥ Jesus made his journey through Samaria, he did not avoid it when every other Jew avoided it, and he purposely came by that way.

♥ From this it is clear that Divine love is after us. Our quest for God is of little importance. God’s quest for us is much richer and much more profound. Human mind cannot fathom this aspect completely.

♥John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (Jn 3:16 NRS)

♥ 1 John 4:9 This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him. (1Jn 4:9 NJB)

♥ John 10:10 “…I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full” (Jn 10:10 NJB)

♥ Book of Isaiah says that your builder wants to marry you.

♥ Isaiah 62:5 “For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” (Is 62:5 NRS)

♥ “Well” is so much connected to marriage. If you are a biblical scholar and pass by a well you will be led to think about marriage.

♥ Abraham’s son Isaac’s wife Rebecca was found near the well. (Gen 24:19-26 NJB)

♥ Jacob found his wife Rachel near the well (Gen 29)

♥ Moses was sitting near the well and his wife Zipporah  came to the well (Ex 2).

♥ St. Augustine says: “There came a woman she symbolizes the church” and the church is the bride of Jesus.

♥ St. Augustine says that the WELL is the concupiscence desires to fill ourselves up/quench our thirst with the water of worldly disordered affections, wealth, pornography, lust, sex, money, wealth….

♥ But ‘these waters’ do not quench our thirst. The thirst comes back. We go to that WELL again and again. It goes on in a desperate rhythm.

♥ We all have that well: well of power, position, wealth… some have one, some have two, some have three…

♥ “Give me a drink” – Jesus said on the Cross: “I thirst” (Jn 19:28)

♥ The bread of life is with them and the disciples go to the town to buy food.

♥ The woman said: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? – Jesus was a Jew; he was a man talking to a woman. So it was a difficult situation culturally.

♥ “A Jew” - from here she moves up. See the upward movement: Jew (v. 9), sir (v. 11), Prophet (v. 19), Messiah, (v. 25), anointed one (v. 25) who would ‘tell everything’ and Jesus has told everything to her. Finally he becomes her savior who is the savior of the World.

♥ The more time you spend with the Lord, the better you come to know him, the better you will come to know yourself and others.

♥ “…If you know the GIFT OF GOD and WHO is saying to you…”—The gift of God is the Holy Spirit. He will give the living water.

♥ Gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

♥ Letter to the Galatians: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

♥ John 7:38 Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As scripture says, "From his heart shall flow streams of living water."  (Jn 7:38 NJB)

♥ Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two crimes: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug water-tanks for themselves, cracked water-tanks that hold no water. (Jer 2:13: Jer 17:13 NJB)

♥ “whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst, the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”—we receive the Holy Communion every day. It should become a spring of water welling up to eternal life for us and flowing out into the lives of our neighbours. Our neighbours should get nourishment from us.

♥  Hag 1:4 RSV "You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes." (Hag 1:6 NAS)

♥ “Go and call your husband”--- God knows us.

♥ Psalm139

You have searched me, Lord,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

♥ “I do not have a husband” – she has become so honest and truthful already.

♥ “I see that you are a prophet”—she seems to change the topic. It takes time to break our old bad habits. It will not go away overnight. She seems to be an eternal dodger. But God wins her heart.

♥ “You people worship what you do not understand”—How do you get right understanding of God: It is by having regular catechism class, Mass attendance and other moments of faith formation in our Christian life.

♥ “Worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth”—God is spirit and truth. He said: “I am the way the truth and the life”

♥ “I Am He”—God is so close to us. The Almighty “I Am” of the burning bush is talking to a woman, telling her everything that she has ever done in her life. It’s so beautiful, so profound. The Lord never said to his disciples “I Am He” She is privileged person.

♥ The woman left her water jar—It is symbolic of leaving her sinful life behind—metanoia. After meeting the Lord, She forgot everything. She forgot her human respect that pushed her up to the well in the afternoon. She told everybody. She became the first evangelist in the Gospel of John. We have lost the zeal and enthusiasm for God and his church. We have the whole truth and we don’t tell other people. Jesus is the way, light, and truth and he told this to the woman. We also need to tell others especially those who have not heard about Christ.

♥  We need to thirst for God like the Psalmist: “ O God you are my God, for you I long for you my soul is thirsting, my body pines for you like a dry weary land without water so I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory...”