Dear Friend,

Last Sunday, Jesus came to encounter us at the well like the Samaritan woman and her people. He promised us living water, the Holy Spirit who will quench all our thirst. Today, the Church celebrates what is traditionally known as Laetare Sunday, Rejoice Sunday, as we are midway towards Easter. Like we celebrate on the third Sunday in Advent, Gaudete Sunday, today is a Sunday of hope where the joy of Easter is anticipated so that by having a foretaste of what we long for in the future, we may persevere in the present. What saddens us is not what happens to us; what saddens us is how we see what happens. All three readings show us the joy of seeing as God sees. Only from God’s perspective can we see things truly as they are because we are all part of the puzzles of life; only God comes from without. If today were not a Sunday in Lent, we would be celebrating the solemnity of St. Joseph, a man who was a contemplative at heart. The one thing we can learn from St. Joseph is to see every circumstance in life as an opportunity to do God’s will, and challenges circumstances as an opportunity to gain merits, let God’s glory be made manifest. This is exactly the point in today’s Gospel which begins with a question from Jesus’ disciples about a man born blind: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible.” We are blind whenever we cannot see, whenever something is incomprehensible. In those dark moments of our lives, Jesus has the same words for us: these things have happened that the glory of God may be made manifest. The paradox and the Good News is that God’s glory and our salvation are two sides of the same coin. When God’s glory is made manifest it is also for our salvation. I would like to suggest that to see as God sees is to do the following three things: 1) Avoid Judging from Appearance; 2) Be anchored in Prayer, and 3) Avoid Pride and sin.

1. Avoid Judging from Appearance

The first reading highlights for us the inadequacy of human judgment. We tend to judge things from the appearance. Samuel is sent to anoint the king of Israel from the children of Jesse. First, he meets Eliab, the oldest son of Jesse who looks appealing in appearance, but the Lord rejects him saying: “Not as man see does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.” No one but God can see the heart. The heart belongs to God. To see as Good sees we must make the effort to see from the heart and not from appearance. To judge from the heart is a testimony to the truth that there is much more than meets the eye. To see from the heart is to see with love. To see from the heart is to believe. It is to believe because we love. The word faith comes from two Latin words: cor – heart, and dare, to give. Hence, to believe, literally means “to give one’s heart to another.” The heart is the last part a person gives of himself. The Lord wants us to give our hearts to Him; to believe in Him. It is only by giving our hearts to Him in faith that we shall begin to see things no longer from their appearance but as God sees them – from the heart. The question remains: Where does one give one’s heart? This leads us to the second point of the importance of being anchored in prayer.

2. To See as God sees is to be Anchored in Prayer

Prayer enables us to see as God sees precisely because it is only in prayer that we come to see God’s will. In prayer, we are like Jesus before the Father in Gethsemane asking the Father’s will to be done. It is in prayer that we are given the light of Christ that enlightens everything. By being exposed to the light of Christ, we see the true identity and beauty of everything, and we are given the light as well to distinguish between falsehood and truth. It is prayer that leads to genuine repentance. St. Paul in the second reading puts it thus: “Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret, but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light."  In other words, in the presence of Jesus' light, not only do we see things as they truly are, His light transforms us into who we ought to be.

One of the greatest gifts we have been in the Church is the sacrament of confession where we are given the opportunity to come before the merciful and healing light of Christ who shows us the truth of who we were meant to be, and how the evil one has been distracting us from the path to salvation. By calling our sins by name they cease to be in the darkness, and no longer have power over us. Lent is a time to make use of the confessional with repentance and amendment. Going to confession is like driving to the opposite direction of the Sun in the morning. Your windshield which you thought was clean, you begin to see all the imperfections that need to be cleaned. But first, we must identity the sins that distract us.

3. Avoid the Obstacles that Prevent us from Seeing

The question we seek to answer is: How comes the Pharisees could not see this miracle of a man born blind being able see? Sometimes our vision is blurred because of various obstacles. Sometimes those obstacles are cloudy, sometimes it’s a blind spot; at other times it’s just our human limitation. For instance, whereas an eagle can look into the sun, we cannot. If we were able to look into the sun we will need eyes that are enhanced. It is God’s grace that gives us the ability to see beyond our limitations.  St Paul in the Second reading invites us to avoid sin and live as children of the light in these words: “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness, and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness.” The challenge in this part is for us to identify those things that prevent us from seeing as God would see.

1. Pride: Pride was the sin of the Pharisees that claimed that they knew it all and wanted neither anything from Jesus nor from the man born blind nor from his parents. Such is the reason they kept asking over and over again if he was really blind. Pride blinds us from seeing the truth because it cannot see beyond itself.
2. Pleasure: A second obstacle that often blurs our vision is pleasure. Pleasure clouds our true judgment of things. Such is the reason why the Church encourages couples to practice chastity until they get married so that they may know each other well, and not let their judgments be clouded through pleasure.
3. Power: Power is like a blind spot that prevents us from seeing the needs of others. It makes us selfish instead of selfless. It makes us serve with ulterior motives instead of with pure intentions.

The Good News of today is that though we are all blind, there is no blindness Jesus cannot cure. There is no greater place to receive God’s grace to heal our blindness than through the Eucharist. As we receive our Lord, may we make the song of Newman ours: Lead kindly light amidst the encircling gloom lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home, lead thou me on. Keep thou my feet I do not ask to see. The distant scene, one step enough for me.”

Fr. Valery Akoh