Dear Parish Family,
Reading the Gospel of John is a very thought provoking venture if we keep asking the question: What is the deeper meaning or higher insight? The symbol used for St. John the evangelist is an eagle to make us see his Gospel message from a ‘higher perspective.’ Throughout the Fourth Gospel we find a range of statements in which Jesus makes solemn pronouncements about his identity and imission. They are the great “I am” sayings, which are not found in Matthew, Mark or Luke.
In the eighth chapter of John, for example, Jesus reveals that “I am he” from above, who does what the Father wishes, More startling he says, “Before Abraham was I am” — an echo of the words uttered by God to Moses to identify who He is. The Jesus of the Fourth Gospel portrays himself as the vine without which we would be groundless and barren. He is also the bread of life. He is the good shepherd. He is the gate. He is the way, the truth, and the life. But what is particularly interesting in the context of the Gospel story of the ‘man born blind” is Jesus’ announcement, “I am the light of the world,” which is found in both the eighth and ninth chapters.
The healed man was in physical darkness from birth. The sight Jesus gave him not only allowed him to see the world, but to embrace his healer in faith. More damaging than the man’s organic lack of vision was the spiritual blindness of the people around him. They had eyes but could not see the truth. Some of them could not even accept that the cure was real, even though the man himself testified to the fact.
The Pharisees first reject the grace of healing under the pretext that it was done on the Sabbath. Surely good cannot come from that. Then they entertain the possibility that the poor fellow was never really blind. Even the testimony of the parents cannot convince them. The Pharisees insist that the man deny the very gift of the sight he has been given and renounce the giver. But since he assures them that Christ must be from God, they expel him from their premises. “You are steeped in sin from your birth, and you are giving us lectures?”
The fluctuation between physical and metaphorical blindness is common in St. John’s Gospel, Jesus’ point here, as always, is that physical blindness would be understandable and preferable to the willful metaphorical blindness of those who refuse to believe in him. The old country song captures the idea very well: ‘there are none so blind, as those who will not see.”
At our Baptism we were given a lighted candle with the instruction to keep it burning. We do not really see the fullness of reality of life, who we are and why we are in this world until we are enabled by baptism and faith to see by the light of Christ, “the light of the world.” Believing is the deepest kind of seeing. Like physical vision, it is not simply a given ability; it is also something that we have to learn to use. During this time of seclusion, fear and uncertainty, we need to live by the light of our faith that can give us courage, meaning and trust in the God who deeply cares.
Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.