Photo illustration by Phil Younk
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Look for God’s presence around you
Based on 1 Sm 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41
This Sunday’s readings center on light – light to see as God sees.
The first reading from 1 Samuel calls attention to “look into the hearts” of individuals and not to judge them by outside appearances or visible qualities. God has Samuel anoint David, a lowly shepherd boy, to be king of Israel.
Paul develops the theme of light and darkness. He encourages the Ephesians to follow the Christian life and to reject evil.
In the Gospel, a man born blind begs by the roadside. Jesus sees him and takes some clay from the ground and mixes it with his saliva to make a mud paste. He gently touches the blind man’s eyes with the paste and tells him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.” The blind man does so and comes back able to see.
Jesus healed the man because he is 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.
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 and believed that Jesus is the Son of God.
With our gift of sight, we meet Jesus every day. We can “see” Jesus in: the gently falling rain, the sentinel-like trees swaying in the wind, the colorful flowers and the majestic mountains. 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 clergy. 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.