Homily originally presented March 22, 2020
Embrace the Light!
St. John the Evangelist does an especially good job of revealing who Jesus is.
And he does it by letting Jesus, Himself, tell us who He is.
I’m referring to the many “I am” statements made by Jesus.
For example in:
John 6, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.”
In John 10, Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd.”
In John 14, Jesus says, “I am the way the truth and the life.”
In John 15, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”
Through these self proclamations we get a very clear image of who Jesus is.
- that He is our food for the journey through this life,
- that He is the one to guide us safely to Heaven,
- that He is the only way to enter Eternal Life
- that He is the source of life we must stay connected
Well, in the Gospel proclaimed today, Jesus makes yet another self-proclamation.
reading from John 9, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.”
Here He’s affirming what the 3 lead Apostles discovered for themselves during the Transfiguration (proclaimed two weeks ago) where Jesus was transfigured before their eyes and He became as bright as the sun!
So bright was the light surrounding Him that they bowed their faces to the ground.
Yes Jesus is the Light of the world.
And He desires us to dwell in His light and radiate His light to all.
On the day of our Baptism, we received the Divine Light of Jesus.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, darkness was driven away
and our souls were enlightened by Christ.
We reverence this during the Baptismal ceremony by lighting a Baptismal candle from the Paschal Candle and handing it to the person, their parents and Godparents.
I say, “Receive the light of Christ … this light is now burning in their soul
and it is to be kept burning brightly …”
It would be good to reflect on this truth often …
that by the gift of Baptism, you have the Light of Christ burning within you!
And how does the light of Christ help us?
It helps us the same way the light of the sun helps us!
They both help us… to see!
The light of the sun helps us to see with our eyes …
where we are going and what we need to avoid.
The light of Christ helps us to see with our souls …
where we are going and what we need to avoid.
In our Second Reading today, St. Paul guides us saying, “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness, and righteousness and truth.”
And He goes on to say, “Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness.”
You see, darkness is the opposite of light. God operates in light because God is light, while the one opposed to Him, the devil, operates in darkness.
Darkness gives us a false sense of security. It’s when we think no one is watching, that we’re more likely to consider doing something that is wrong … whether it’s stealing, cheating, drinking alcohol, doing drugs, or engaging in a sexual sin, darkness has a way of moving us to think it’s ok.
But wisdom comes in realizing that darkness to us ... is not darkness to God.
For God is Light and so He sees everything, even the things done in darkness!
In our First Reading from the Book of Samuel, we heard,
“Not as man sees does God see … (He) sees into the heart.”
God knew which of Jesse’s son’s to anoint, because God sees right into the heart of everyone. He knows us inside out. There’s no hiding from Him because as John tells us in his First Letter, “God is Light and in Him there is no darkness.”
If we’d just stop to think that God sees everything, then we’d be very reluctant to do anything that is wrong and we’d strive hard to do everything that is good.
I remember the many times Mom would correct us as boys for misbehaving saying, “Would you do that if Father Paluch was here?” Fr. Paluch was our Pastor and it helped us to see right away that no, I wouldn’t be acting this way if our Parish Priest was there. I wouldn’t want him to see me misbehaving!
At our Youth Retreats, we counsel our kids on the many inappropriate things that are shown on TV. We give them little sign cards to put by their TV screens.
They have a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the question,
“Would Jesus watch this program with you?”
It’s a question that even our kid’s parents have found helpful in deciding what to watch on TV or Video or DVD or phone or home computer.
What a great question to ask ourselves when we’re tempted to do wrong.
“Would Jesus watch this program with you?”
Whether you admit it or not, He’s watching! He sees us in light and in dark, and that should move us to avoid doing what’s wrong and only doing what’s good.
St. Paul exhorts us today,
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”
Lent is the very best season to reawaken ourselves by the Light of Christ.
You know how hard it is to continue sleeping when the sunlight starts streaming through your windows. You might as well get up and get going with the day.
Well, it’s similarly hard to continue wallowing in the darkness of sinful habits when we have the light of Christ in our lives. That’s why it’s so important to keep coming back to the Lord and begging for His light to scatter the darkness of our sin.
In our Gospel today, Jesus performs a wonderful miracle; He gives sight to a man who had been blind from birth. No one had ever heard of such a thing!
But, now, Jesus declares: “I am the light of the world.”
Then He opens the eyes of the blind man to see!
And Jesus graced him even further ...
by giving him not only the ability to see physically ... but spiritually too!
Yes, after the man was cured, Jesus asked him if he believed in the Son of Man.
The man answered, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jesus said, “The one speaking with you is he.”
The man immediately said, “I do believe, Lord.” and he worshipped Him.
Spiritual sight is the greater gift ... for it enables us to see not just earthly things
but more importantly it enables us to see Heavenly things.
and that moves us to live our lives to attain a place in Heaven .
This man in the Gospel isn’t the only one blind from birth.
All of us are blind from birth!
We all come into this world with souls blinded by Original Sin.
Thanks be to God for the waters of Baptism
that wash away our blindness and let in the light of Christ.
When we look to Jesus, our vision is perfectly clear. God will not deceive or be deceived. He wants to be our guide. But we have to see Him to follow Him.
This truth rings through in the Responsorial Psalm we just prayed today.
In this psalm, Psalm 23, we prayed, “The Lord is my Shepherd … He guides me in right paths.” Whenever we let the Lord be our Shepherd, we know that we’ll choose the right paths and make the right decisions.
Paul says, “Live as children of light.” In other words, live as children of God.
Today we see the how blindness is removed by following Jesus’ commands.
Jesus sent the blind man to wash in the Pool of Siloam.
And by listening to Jesus, the man received his sight.
The same thing happens to us when we listen to Jesus ... we receive our sight!
… we come to see clearly what is good and pleasing in the eyes of God
and we’re guided to make wise, life-giving decisions.
One of the best ways to remove our blindness and improve our vision is to go to the Sacrament of Confession.
It’s there that Jesus, who is the Light, removes all the sins that keep us in darkness.
It’s there that we are healed of our sins and our vision for goodness and for God is restored. As we make use of this great Sacrament over the years, we come to see
that little by little we only have eyes for Jesus! And the closer we follow the Shepherd, the more assurance we have of being guided in right paths.
Remember the 2nd Precept of the Church is to go to Confession at least once per year. Hopefully you will choose to go more frequently, such as monthly. But, if you haven’t been in a while, now would be a good time to go.
The 3rd Precept of the Church is to receive Holy Communion at least once per year, especially during the Easter Season.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I came into this world … so that those who do not see might see.” Let’s accept His offer to heal our vision. Let’s not remain blind.
Rather, let’s take advantage of Jesus’ offer to see clearly,
that will keep us on the road to one day seeing Him ... face to face!
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