We live in a sacramental world. We are a body and a soul on a journey through a supernatural life that has eternal significance. The material world is constantly vying for our attention, and it can be hard to attend to our spiritual needs. However, both of these elements are good, and God can use the material to nurture the spiritual.
In the Gospel readings this Sunday, Jesus uses spit and clay to heal a blind man. These material elements lack the medicinal qualities necessary to cure blindness. Rather, Jesus is using them in a sacramental fashion. He accomplishes a spiritual good through the use of material elements. In a similar fashion, Jesus entrusts the Church with seven extraordinary sacraments that use unassuming materials such as water, bread, wine and words to cause the most extraordinary spiritual realities. It is no surprise that our secular culture, whose sole focus is on the material world, misunderstands the faith and sacraments as prescientific superstitions or purely symbolic rites of passage. What is surprising is how many Christians have adopted a similar view.
Even in Jesus’ day, many religious had become blinded by the material order. In John 9:1-41 Jesus heals a man, blind from birth, and the response from the prevailing culture is shocking. What should be a moment of awe and conversion, becomes an unwelcome divine interruption. The Pharisees have wealth, prestige, and a political order to maintain. Their contentment with managing the small affairs of the temporal order precludes their ability to see the larger spiritual reality before them.
The Pharisees refused to accept a truth that challenged their worldview and status. They received eyewitness testimony from the community that knew the blind man, his parents, and even the blind man — twice. It is ironic that despite the irrefutable evidence before them, they were “blind.” Appalled by their willful ignorance, the blind man exclaims, “This is what is so amazing, that you do not know … If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.” (Jn 9:30-33).
However, even before the evidence was given they “had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, they would be expelled from the synagogue” (Jn 9:22). To be expelled from the synagogue was a severe punishment. It meant that a person was cut off from friends, family, and the larger Jewish community. This tactic is so effective that the blind man’s parents are afraid to celebrate the greatest good that had ever happened to their son.
When this did not silence the blind man, the Pharisees resorted to mockery and name calling. It is hard to hear this account and not see its parallels in our own day. Our prevailing culture is preoccupied by the material world, wealth, prestige, and political power. It is a world hostile to the Gospel and readily uses isolation and mockery to silence it.
If this were an account from our lives, where would we find ourselves? Are we like the Pharisees — believing ourselves to be godly so long as God doesn’t challenge our comfort or earthly plans? Are we like the parents that recognize the miracle before us, but for fear of rejection and ridicule, hide what we know to be true? Or are we like the blind son, whose supernatural encounter with Jesus will not be silenced? There is a lot we can learn from his testimony. It is not abrasive, obnoxious, or clever; it is pure and honest. It is an example of what St. Peter says, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence… (1 Peter 3:15-16).
Lent is a wonderful time to encounter or reencounter Jesus’ supernatural love in the sacraments. Healed by that encounter, we need to be ready to give our loving witness so that others may also know God’s eternal happiness.
