Christ the Cornerstone

Let Christ’s light shine in and through you

The Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Jn 9:1-41) speaks of blindness as both a physical impairment and as a metaphor for spiritual or moral darkness.

Jesus passes by a man who was born blind, and his disciples ask him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answers, “Neither he nor his parents sinned” (Jn 9:2-3).

Then why was this man born blind? Indeed, why is anyone born into the world with physical or mental disabilities?

Jesus’s answer is curious: “It is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (Jn 9:3). We can only imagine the disciples’ confusion. How does anyone’s physical disability, including this particular man who was born blind, make visible the works of God?

Jesus is using the reality of natural blindness, which is no one’s “fault,” to illustrate the spiritual and moral darkness that come upon us (like nightfall) because of the sinful decisions we human beings make and the immoral actions that follow.

Our inner blindness and our moral confusion cause us to sin. Although we ought to know what is right and good, we deliberately fail to see it and we act accordingly. We choose darkness over light, and we live as people who have been blinded by our own selfishness and sin.

Jesus then adds another curious saying: “We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn 9:4-5). While Jesus is present in the world, and in our lives, there is moral clarity and spiritual truth. He is the light in our world’s darkness.

But without Jesus, darkness prevails. Sin overwhelms ordinary human nature, and evil triumphs. That’s why we can only do the works of God successfully when Christ is with us, and when his light shines in and through us. He can work miracles through us, but only if we let his light shine in us.

St. John’s Gospel makes it clear that Jesus did not simply speak words of spiritual wisdom. He took concrete action:

When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” [which means Sent]. So he went and washed, and came back able to see. (Jn 9:6-7)

Jesus is our Savior (from the Greek word soter which means “healer”). He heals all our ills both physical and spiritual. He doesn’t simply preach to us, offering wise sayings. He acts, and he challenges us to do the same.

The first action that we are challenged to take is an examination of conscience. We must ask ourselves: where is there darkness in our lives? Where have we allowed the light of Christ to be overshadowed by our own selfishness and sin? When have we refused to accept the healing power of Jesus offered to us in prayer, holy reading, or the sacraments (especially Reconciliation and Eucharist)? Have our own choices blinded us to the truth about ourselves and the world we live in?

The second action we must take is to step outside of ourselves, our comfort zones, in an effort to shine the light of Christ on others. The wisdom and example of Jesus, which is visible to us in Sacred Scripture, in the liturgy and in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, show us the only light that can successfully illuminate our world’s darkness. The works of God are only visible to us in the light of day. If we allow ourselves to be surrounded by darkness, we are lost.

In the second reading for the Fourth Sunday in Lent (Eph 5:8–14), St. Paul admonishes us:

You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness; rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Eph 5:8-14)

As children of light, we are meant to live in the light of Christ and to dispel the darkness that surrounds us.

During this Lenten season, let’s actively seek the light of Christ. Let’s boldly proclaim the refrain that St. Paul quotes in Sunday’s second reading: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph 5:14). †