Colorful-Gospel-3_31_11

Photo illustration by Phil Younk
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Based on the Gospel of John 9:1-41

From darkness to light – the Lord’s touch. In this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear about a man who was blind from the time he was born. Jesus saw him begging by the roadside. Jesus took some clay from the ground and mixed it with his saliva to make a mud paste. He gently touched the blind man’s eyes with the mud paste and told him, “Go to the Pool of Siloam and wash your eyes.” The blind man did as Jesus told him and came back able to see.

Jesus healed the man because he was a child of God – despite the disciples seeing the man’s blindness as a result of sin, the neighbors seeing the man as a beggar, the Pharisees grumbling about a cure on the Sabbath, the worshipers thinking the cure a hoax and the man’s parents acknowledging the cure but afraid of being expelled from the synagogue.

Later, Jesus asked the man, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”

He answered, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”

Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” Falling to his knees the man said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.

Jesus had touched not only the man’s eyes, but his heart as well with the “light” of his love. The man, with eyes of faith, saw that Jesus was the Son of God.

Do you know that with our gift of sight we meet Jesus every day? We can “see” Jesus in: the fresh-fallen snow, the colorful flowers, the majestic mountains, the variety of sentinel-like trees swaying in the wind, the gently falling rain refreshing all of nature. All of God’s creation is his gift to us.

We can “see” Jesus in: the love our parents and family share with us, the friendship of neighbors, the care and concern of teachers, the teaching of God’s Word and the administering of the sacraments by our parish priests. All the people in our lives are God’s gift to us.

Try to “see” all the wondrous ways God touches us every single day. Thank God for his love and goodness and for the precious gift of sight.

Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World.” Lord Jesus, fill our hearts with the light of your love so we can live in that light and share it with others to bring us all to greater faith in you.