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Sunday Homily (4th Sunday of Lent)

 

1Sm 16:1b, 10-13a; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1, 6-9, 13-17,34-38

Our daily lives often times can be like a roller coaster. It can be so fast, so scary, and force us to close our eyes. It is as if at that moment we are forced to do one thing only: closing our eyes while screaming our hearts out. But is that true? When the roller coaster of our lives is so fast and we are left with nothing but blindness and screams, actually we still can slow down our own attention. Yes, despite the high velocity of our life we still are invited to open our eyes and cry out our own awe to the beauty of God’s creative hand trying to show us the beauty of God’s own salvation. Admitting that we are often incapacitated by our own fear is the first thing we need to do before we can open our eyes to the beauty of his salvation. This, I believe is the conversion experience of the blind man in the Gospel today.

The gospel reading from John provides us with a clear evidence of how admitting our own spiritual blindness is an important part in our conversion. The blind man allowed himself to be cured by Jesus. He stopped being afraid of his own blind condition from birth. And he did exactly what Jesus told him to do: wash himself from those fear in the pool of Siloam. Whoever is able to acknowledge his or her own spiritual blindness, such as the blind man in the story, they are the one who open themselves to the light of Christ. The Pharisees in the story are those who stays in the opposite side of the blind man. Their unwillingness to admit the blindness of their hearts prevent them from seeing the real light of Christ. Arrogance can cost us our own salvation. The blind man cured by Jesus eventually was able to see the real light of Christ as savior when he was able to recognize him as the SON of Man. He was able to recognize the salvation plan of God given to him since his birth. This is also the experience of David in the first reading.


The first reading tells the story of David who become the King after Saul. This historical event reveals the Israelites’ faith about how human kings are God’s elect. It is God who elected David since the beginning for them to become their King and liberator. Elected by God to bring safety to his own nation since birth, a king is a spiritual figure who is protected by the Holy Spirit. As such, David open the way for the coming of Jesus as God’s own chosen one, as King and as a savior for all of us, bringing salvation to us since the day of our birth. Since the day of our birth we are not condemned to be sin-full but to be grace-full.


Hence the encouragement from the second reading for us to have faith in our baptism through Jesus Christ, our King and savior. Through the baptism in Christ Jesus we become one as new person. We replenish each other. We help each other to fight the darkness of sins. With the strength of our love we illumine the dark and lurking structure of sins lingers in our society. It is the faith of being one community liberated by Christ that can help us to become real witness who can see the resurrection of Christ in his or her own life.


Openness of heart, humility, and steadfastness are the conditions to reach the true faith. We need to open our selves wholly and allow Christ to heal us from our own blindness. Believing is not merely accepting the teachings of faith. More than that, truly believing means letting go of our own preconceptions, our own way of seeing and understanding things. To be able to resurrected with Chris we need to start with allowing our spiritual eyes to see the way Christ sees this world. A vision of love. A vision of empathy. A vision of hope.
 


Fr. Antonius Firmansyah, SJ

 

 

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