Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent: Come, Walk in the Light of Christ

African Catholic Voices

The blind man in the Gospel represents those who are seeking goodness and search for the light in all things and eventually find the light in Christ. He was born blind and was suffering until Jesus found him and restored his sight. Even though this man endured this condition from his birth to adulthood, it is obvious in the narrative that he was a very positive man with an open mind and was seeking goodness in his own painful circumstances.

In the dialogue with the detractors of Jesus after his healing, the blind man was positive: he affirmed that the work that Jesus did is a great deed; that this deed is of and from God, and that only someone from God could do such works of miracles because “it is unheard of that a person ever opened the eyes of a man born blind.” You too can be cured of your spiritual blindness if you are open to encountering Jesus. The whole earth is like God’s burning bush, and each of us is invited to pay attention to the voice of God speaking to us through the signs of the times from this burning bush. Like the blind man, may we be led to the light? Unlike the blind Pharisees, may we be open to the light; and unlike the crowd, may we make a move towards Jesus and affirm him as the Light from God sent to banish the darkness in the world and manifesting to us the face of the God of love, mercy, and compassion.