4th Sunday of Lent Year
A 2017:
Today
is the 4th Sunday of Lent and we are celebrating the Second Scrutiny
for the elect of our parish who are preparing for the sacraments at
Easter. The gospel we just heard focuses
on light and blindness. Christ is the
Light. He takes away the physical
blindness of the man who was born blind, but even more, he gives the Light of
Faith to that man as well, while the Pharisees stay in their blindness. This reading helps us all to see. This reading helps us all to recognize Christ
as the light of the world. No matter how
much darkness we might face in life, and sometimes it’s a lot, Christ is the
light. The darkness will not win. So, keep praying for these two elect of our
parish. We pray that Christ will take
away their spiritual blindness and give them the light of faith.
But,
today for the homily, I wanted to focus on the passage at the beginning of the
gospel. It really struck me as being
important. The disciples find this poor
blind man and they ask Jesus a seemingly innocuous question: “Rabbi, who
sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” Jesus responds: neither one. I think this question needs some more analysis. And, at the root of this question is a
spiritual issue that I see quite often when talking with people.
At
the root of this question, the disciples are really asking Jesus: “why do bad
things happen?” Don’t we all have this
question? We want to blame problems on
something or someone. There has to be
someone who is at fault right? Sometimes
it is easy to pinpoint evil on the concrete actions and decisions of human
beings: the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened because of the wicked decisions of
the murderous terrorists. We know
exactly who to blame. But, what do we do
with things like hurricanes, tornadoes, cancer, or blindness in the gospel
reading? We have the same desire to
figure out who to blame. So the
disciples say: somebody must have sinned.
Therefore, God is simply punishing this person for his sin or his parent’s
sin. In some ways, this theory would be
satisfying right? We could simply say:
God just punishes us for our sins.
But,
Jesus’ answer is mind-blowing: this man is not blind because of sin. This man is not blind because God is
punishing him. In fact, this is not how
God works at all. I can’t tell you how
many people have told me: God must be punishing me. But, God doesn’t do that. God never does anything evil. It’s impossible for him to do something that
is evil. Rather, all the evil we have
ever experienced in our lives comes from two sources: #1, bad choices by
ourselves and others; #2, we live in a broken world because of Original
Sin. That’s it. All the evil we have ever experienced either
comes from bad choices or the fact that we live in a broken world.
I
really don’t like those two reasons. I
want something more. Why do bad things
happen to good people? It must be
someone’s fault. We have to blame it on
someone. Maybe we want to blame it on
God: “God has a plan” we might say. But,
God never does evil things just so something good would happen. No, the evil in our lives either comes from
bad decisions or the brokenness of the world.
So,
does this mean that everything is hopeless?
Of course not. Why do bad things
happen? Christ answers the apostles and
us with these words: “it is so that the works of God might be made visible.” In other words, God sent Jesus precisely to
overcome the evil we experience in this world.
No matter where the evil comes from, Jesus is the light that can
overcome the darkness. Whether that is
the darkness of our bad choices, or the darkness of our broken world, the death
and resurrection of Jesus has the power to sweep away all the darkness of the
entire universe and replace it with his wondrous light.
In
the face of sickness, sadness, or the loss of a loved one, people will often
ask me: why did this happen? Why did God
do this? I always try to answer the same
way. God doesn’t cause evil. It’s true that he does allow evil, he could
stop it, but he doesn’t. But, God doesn’t
cause evil. So the answer to the
question why is often just the fact that we live in a broken world. So it’s not a great answer to a tough
question. But, I suggest a different
question. Rather than asking why God
allowed evil, ask “what did God do in response to this evil, this darkness?” The answer to that question is much more
inspiring: in the face of the darkness and evil experienced by his people, God
the Father sent his Son Jesus Christ to be the light of the world. And, Jesus Christ laid down his life out of
love for us. In moments of darkness,
despair, suffering, let the light of Christ shine in our lives. Faith doesn’t take away our pain and sadness,
but it gives us hope, it gives us light, even in darkness.
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