by Sr. Marie-France Correau
If you prefer, watch the recorded video by clicking here: https://youtu.be/xDJ5eVnEubE
On this fourth Sunday of Lent, I am deeply moved by Jesus’ words in the story of the healing of the man born blind, which is recounted in John’s Gospel, chapter 9. This story is quite long and can be approached from many angles. No doubt still influenced by our community’s Christmas card, on which we chose the phrase from St John, chapter 1: ‘The Word was the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world’, I pause today at verses 3 to 7
Jesus proclaims himself ‘the light of the world’ before performing an astonishing act towards the man born blind whom he met on his way out of the Temple. His disciples questioned him about the origin of this man’s blindness, which in Jesus’ time was the consequence of sin… Reread this short excerpt… perhaps you will be struck, as I was, by Jesus’ words when he says he is ‘at work’! Jesus ‘works the works of God who sent Him.’ Jesus, the one sent by God, will say later in the same Gospel of John, in chapter 14:10: ‘It is the Father who dwells in me who does God’s own works.’ A Father God at work
Prophets, priests and kings since our baptism, we have been immersed in the death and resurrection of Jesus, “light of the world’. So, the question that Jesus asks the man who was healed without asking for anything and who can now see the One who healed him, I understand that this question is also addressed to me, to us? “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” ‘’Do you believe?”… Yes… it is first and foremost a question of faith: Do I believe that when I see Jesus at work, I see the Father at work?
At work in my heart, in hearts, in ALL hearts and ALWAYS at work… It is a joy to know this, to believe it and to recognize God at work in my personal life, in all the members of my community, my family life, my relationships, in my commitments, in the particularly unsettling events of the world. So, I invite us this week, to look for the signs of God’s work at work in our lives. Let us not stop at the surface of things. The healed blind man is rejected by the community, which remains impervious to the light of Christ. As disciples of Jesus, let us keep our eyes fixed on Him and open ourselves to His Word to welcome the flash of divine light that will evangelize us, convert our eyes and our hearts and transform us into Him. (Jesus)
