1 Sm. 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Ps. 23:1-3a, 3b-6; Eph. 5:8-14; Jn.9:1-14
Children of light! By our baptism we have received the light of Christ called to be children of the light. Children of the light not only avoid the darkness of sin but also bring the light of truth into the world through the gospel message. The gospel message begins with the question Jesus asks the blind man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” By the darkness of sin in this world, we see that many still do not believe in the Son of Man. The greater danger to the soul is even when we say “I believe” but nothing changes in our lives then we become like the Pharisees who say “We see” but Jesus responds “so your sin remains”.
In our world some remain blind and have yet to encounter the Son of Man but for the children of the light who do “see” Christ who is the light of the world and remain in their sin this Lent is our calling to repent, to seek forgiveness and to remain in the light by living according to the word of God. How are the children of the light to be the evangelizers if there is no transformation going on in our lives? Seeking holiness is a process of change from within that today we both the same person and a new creation, closer to God, stronger in our practice of faith, strengthened by God able to better live out our Christian virtues. This is the light that will be visible to others and lead them to come to believe. We have shed our blindness and come to see someone, Christ Jesus that others will desire to also encounter.
In the story of the blind man in today’s gospel, Jesus “made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes” and sent him to wash in the Pool of Siloam “which means Sent”. The Pool of Siloam is fed by the Gihon River mentioned in Genesis issuing out of the Garden of Eden. Jesus is giving us the sign that as God created humanity from the ground without sin in the Garden, he is not only from the ground making clay and giving the man eyes to see but also giving humanity a new creation through water and the spirit to believe. The Pool of Siloam means sent thus Jesus is the one sent to us, the chosen one that the Jews were waiting for and we in response to our washing through baptism are the ones sent into the world to bring the good news that today we have received salvation through Christ our Lord. Our mission now is to live as children of the light.
What is our light? The fruit of light is “every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth”. This does not begin with us and our ideas of goodness, or our sense of righteousness, or how we define our truth. This begins when we “try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord”. God first! We can go about doing all of what we desire that is pleasing to us, to our work, to our friends but have we asked God what is pleasing to him? We can easily become a “sleeper” doing all that is pleasing to the flesh, the world, and living only those religious practices we pick and choose. Soon we will become asleep at the wheel driving our lives in darkness without the headlights of Christ to keep on the road to salvation. It is like driving at night on the road without headlights in darkness trusting only on the GPS of the world to lead us. The world’s GPS cannot warn us if ahead lies a dead animal, a fallen branch, or a walking human in danger of being run over. The headlight of Christ is there to see the truth of the world and know how to steer around the dangers of sin.
Learn from the shepherd what is pleasing to him and our lives will be at peace proclaiming “there is nothing I shall want” for he “guides us in right paths”. Children of the light remain in Christ, fear no evil, and in Christ “only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life”. Today the Lord spreads the table before us at the banquet of the Lord to receive him in the Eucharist. In his own body and blood, he refreshes our souls. In baptism we have been anointed as David was anointed and from that day the spirit of the Lord rushed upon us to help us grow as David did in holiness.
The lesson of David is that he was the chosen to be anointed king and “the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David” to be a child of the light growing in knowledge and wisdom as a great king but he too fell into the darkness of sin by the temptation of the flesh. King David conquered the world and then the world came tempting him to abuse his power. The more we gain of the world the greater the temptation to fall into “more of me and less of God in me”. Have we fallen back into complacency with the Lord accepting the status quo? Unless we continuously strive to seek God, we will soon find ourselves moving from the light of Christ to the shadows of complacency to the darkness of sin. There is no status quo with Jesus. His call is “come follow me”, keep moving closer to his heart and into the kingdom prepared for us before the foundation of the world.
The light of Christ not only opens our eyes to see but our hearts to love. He who loves finds joy and peace close by and rejoices for God is good and he is our shepherd always by our side. I confess to be a thinker more than a feeler so I come to love by opening my eyes to God to see him and know him through the Word of God and through the revelation of salvation history in his Church. Some come to the truth as lovers of all God has created as the hand of God working through each other. God created us all different with different gifts but all of his creation calls out to him through our gifts and today we know the road to Zion is in the cross Jesus carried for our salvation. This is why we love, we sacrifice, and we trust in Jesus. This is why we dare to say we are Children of the light.
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