1. In the seventh chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds his fractious Israelites – “You are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; God has chosen you from all the nations to be a people peculiarly his own. It is not because you are the largest of all nations that God has set his heart on you. It was because the Lord loved you that he ransomed you from Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” God said something like this to each one of us on the occasion of holy Baptism: Through Baptism and all that follows therefrom, God has chosen us to be faithful to his Gospel, to be his evangelists, certainly not for personal privilege, certainly not for merits of our own, but because in his love he invites us – he empowers us – to be light for the nations.
2. This passage from Deuteronomy bears witness to what we call “the biblical doctrine of divine election”. If not carefully understood, this doctrine can create difficulties in the minds of some of our contemporaries. Does God have a particular love for some people or a universal love for all peoples? In choosing ancient Israel, was God rejecting the ancient Egyptians? By no means! The Church teaches us that God has a true, sincere, saving will for all peoples. Divine election is not a choosing for the personal advantage of the one chosen but a choosing for particular responsibility. In our first reading today, the prophet Samuel tells us – “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart”. At times, in a seemingly scandalizing manner, God chooses the least likely for the most important missions. God chose David for the salvation of ancient Israel. God chose ancient Israel for the salvation of the ancient Egyptians. How odd of God to choose David; how odd of God to choose the Jews; how odd of God to choose you and me – certainly for no reason but for discipleship-responsibility. Divine election really works because God himself is the main “persona” in the drama – at work through David, at work through ancient Israel, at work in us in the Spirit-directed ministry of the Church. All the while, of course, we humans can very easily fail and thus derail the Holy Spirit.
3. Last week – in preparation for Easter – we reflected on the woman at the well in Samaria as our Savior moved her from sin to grace. Today, we have listened to the wonderful story of the man born blind as the grace of Christ moved him from darkness to the light of faith – according to the Lord’s great promise – “I am the light of the world. No follower of mine will ever walk in darkness, but will have the light of life”.
4. The story of the man born blind, just like the season of Lent, focuses on the question of conversion. The grace of the Holy Spirit draws the blind man to think of Jesus, first as a prophet, then as one sent by God, but finally as his Lord and Savior. Christ’s mission was not to open the eyes of all the blind in his days. He opens in our Gospel reading the blind man’s eyes to show his power and his love, and to show his will to open in us all that inner eye which is the grace of faith. Our second reading speaks to that inner eye of faith as St. Paul tells us – “We were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord”. Light produces every kind of goodness, righteousness and truth. We are to live as children of the light. Paul then quotes from an early Christian hymn – an Easter message for each one of us, as it was an Easter message for the man born blind – “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.”
P.S.: On the 4th Sunday of Lent, the Church prays especially for all those who will receive the Sacraments of Initiation at this year’s great Easter Vigil. Wherever the RCIA is operative, the 4th Sunday of Lent is the scheduled time for the second of three scrutinies to take place. What is meant by the scrutinies? We must not think of them as examinations to discern the doctrinal or moral readiness of the candidates to be baptized. The scrutinies have a two-fold purpose – they represent the Church’s prayer of intercession for those who are asking for Baptism. They also represent parish communities’ support to encourage the candidates who are soon to become fully initiated members of the parish. What do the scrutinies seek to encourage? They have several objectives: to aid the candidate to engage in a lifelong struggle to put aside the deeds of darkness and to put on the armor of light; to instruct the candidate about sin and darkness from which we have all been delivered by Christ who is our light; to fill the minds and hearts of the catechumens with knowledge and understanding about Christ the Redeemer. And so we pray:
Lord God, source of unfailing light, by the death and resurrection of Christ you have cast out the darkness of hatred and lies and poured forth the light of truth and love upon the human family. Hear our prayers for these elect, whom you have called to be your adopted children. Enable them, as you enabled the man born blind, to pass from darkness to light and, delivered from the prince of darkness, to live always as children of the light. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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