March 15, 2026

4th Sunday of Lent (A)

Blindness—Not Just Physical

Msgr Thomas Gervasio

 
Lent is called a time of penance, reconciliation, self-denial, and renewal. even as the Church’s forty day retreat. Today’s readings evoke another description of this season: a journey from darkness to light or blindness to sight.
 
The Gospel recounts how a man born blind moves from physical blindness to physical sight and at the same time, from spiritual blindness to the light of faith. St. John contrasts him with the Pharisees who enjoyed physical sight but despite their scrupulous religious observance, lacked spiritual vision. They could not rejoice in the fact that the man received his sight. They were disturbed. They were offended that the miracle took place on a Sabbath. The longer form of the Gospel details the very contentious scene which ends in the man’s expulsion from the synagogue.
 
What a paradox…the blind man sees and those who see are the ones who are really blind! The one in darkness comes to light while those who claim to be in the light are the ones in the darkness of sin. For all their knowledge and fervor, the Pharisees were obstinate. They did not want to understand. They were blind to the presence and power of Christ. Their blindness was of the heart and not of the eyes.
 
I think we can safely say, all of us have blind spots of one kind or another. 

• We can point out the sins of others but are blind to our own.
• We can focus on our burdens and be blind to God’s blessings.
• We can be resolved to satisfy our own wants and blind to the needs and sufferings of others.
• We can stubbornly cling to our own opinions and be blind to the views of others.
• We can be so comfortable in how we are living and blind to what the Gospel demands.
• We can be lazy in our spiritual life and blind to the riches that can be ours through prayer and the sacraments.

 
More than we’d like to admit, our pride keeps us blind. We remain stubbornly in the darkness of our sin. Sometimes we carry our sin so long that we become accustomed to it. Its seriousness fades because we become comfortable with it. Great things were never born in comfort zones. Pope Francis offered some help. “We need the humility and the courage of conversion that brings us into the light of Christ, the light of faith. That is not easy. Light makes us see so many ugly things we do not want to see, sins that distance us from the light of Christ. Jesus, the Light, says: ‘Have courage. Let yourself be enlightened. Let yourself be seen for what you have inside because…I am not going to condemn you. I want to save you.’”
 
Lord, There are things I have not wanted to see in life, blindnesses I have learned to call by other names. Today I ask for the grace of sight. Not the sight that judges, not the sight that compares — but the sight that sees as You see: clearly, mercifully, without conditions. Open my eyes. And if I am not ready to see everything yet, open them to just one thing — one truth, one person, one grace I have been missing. Amen.
 
Today we celebrate the 2^nd Scrutiny for our Elect on his way to the Sacraments at Easter. The Church has long seen in this Gospel, an allusion of what happens to us at Baptism. Baptism was often referred to as “Illumination.” To be converted to Christ and washed free of sin is to pass from darkness to light, from confusion to truth, from distorted vision to clear vision and ultimately from death to life. Baptism opens our blind eyes to see and worship Christ, the Light of the world.