FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT ( 14 March 2021)

FIRST READING (2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23)

In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people

added infidelity to infidelity,

practicing all the abominations of the nations

and polluting the LORD’s temple

which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,

send his messengers to them,

for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.

But they mocked the messengers of God,

despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,

until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed

that there was no remedy.

Their enemies burnt the house of God,

tore down the walls of Jerusalem,

set all its palaces afire,

and destroyed all its precious objects.

Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,

where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons

until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.

All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:

“Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,

during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest

while seventy years are fulfilled.”

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,

in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,

the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia

to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,

both by word of mouth and in writing:

“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:

All the kingdoms of the earth

the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,

and he has also charged me to build him a house

in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,

let him go up, and may his God be with him!”

—The Word of the Lord.

R. Thanks be to God.

 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM (137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6)

R. (6ab)  Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

By the streams of Babylon

we sat and wept

when we remembered Zion.

On the aspens of that land

we hung up our harps.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

For there our captors asked of us

the lyrics of our songs,

And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:

“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

How could we sing a song of the LORD

in a foreign land?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

may my right hand be forgotten!

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

May my tongue cleave to my palate

if I remember you not,

If I place not Jerusalem

ahead of my joy.

R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

 

SECOND READING (Eph 2:4-10)

Brothers and sisters:

God, who is rich in mercy,

because of the great love he had for us,

even when we were dead in our transgressions,

brought us to life with Christ — by grace you have been saved —,

raised us up with him,

and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,

that in the ages to come

He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace

in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith,

and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;

it is not from works, so no one may boast.

For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works

that God has prepared in advance,

that we should live in them

—The Word of the Lord.

R. Thanks be to God.

 

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Jn 8:12)

Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life. (R)

 

(Long Form)

GOSPEL (The man who was blind went off and washed himself and came back able to see.)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (9:1-41)

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam”—which means Sent. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.

His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is,” but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” He said, “I am.” So they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” He replied, “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went there and washed and was able to see.” And they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don’t know.”

They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes,

and I washed, and now I can see.” So some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a sinful man do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, “What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

Now the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?” His parents answered and said, “We know that this is our son and that he was born blind. We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him, he is of age; he can speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. For this reason his parents said, “He is of age; question him.”

So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give God the praise! We know that this man is a sinner.” He replied, “If he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” So they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?” They ridiculed him and said, “You are that man’s disciple; we are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from.” The man answered and said to them, “This is what is so amazing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him. It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.” They answered and said to him, “You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “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.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him. Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him,” “Surely we are not also blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.” —The Gospel of the Lord.

R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

 

(Short Form)

GOSPEL (The man who was blind went off and washed himself and came back able to see.)

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (9:1,6-9, 13-17, 34-38)

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam”—which means Sent. So he went and washed, and came back able to see. His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is,” but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” He said, “I am.”

They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.” So some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a sinful man do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, “What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

They answered and said to him, “You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “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.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him. —The Gospel of the Lord.

R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Homily

“Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Today our first and second readings and psalm come from the regular “B” cycle, while our Gospel is chosen specifically for the 2nd Scrutiny and comes from the Gospel of St John because of the presence of our Elect. This Gospel helps us to reflect on how many of us still face difficult issues. Like the disciples, some of us may sincerely believe that misfortune – such as the blindness of the man in the Gospel – is a punishment for sin. The parable asks us whether we can see grace in ordinary events. For our Elect and us, like the blind man himself, we might be amazed at how God can work wonders in our lives

Our first reading is familiar to our catechumens who will remember when we discussed the histories found in the Books of Kings and Chronicles and the stories there of the great Babylonian exile. These stories, told through these writers and the major prophets present us with a question about whether misfortune is really a punishment for sin? There certainly are times when we suffer the consequences of our own foolish or malicious behavior. The author of the first reading bluntly tells the Israelites that their exile is the consequence of “infidelity to infidelity” and they have no one to blame but themselves. But in the light of Gospel story of the man born blind, we come to understand that something like blindness is certainly not the consequence of sin!

The sin of the Israelites was their infidelity and their “forgetting” the Lord, as we heard in the Responsorial psalm, which is a hymn written to reflect the pathos of the exiles “by the streams of Babylon” as they hung their harps and could no longer sing the praises of God. 

St. Paul also reminds us in the 2nd reading that although we all have sinned in one way or another, and been unfaithful to God and his promises, God remains faithful to us and is rich in mercy towards us. He goes on to remind us that through grace we have received faith and this faith is a gift from God. And because of the kindness of Jesus, the Christ, we are now raised up and showered with even more graces. Like our ELECT before us today, we no longer should be blinded by rigidity or fear or prejudice! Like the Elect, we are all called to open our eyes to the light of faith and take brave steps into the future. 

Turning to the wonderful story of Gospel, we may ask, “Who was this man?” Interestingly, like the woman in last week’s Gospel, he is not named. This is significant because, often in the Gospels, the fact that the name is NOT mentioned is an indication to the listener that we should see ourselves in this story.

The “blindness” in the story is a symbol of our own inability to see the hand of God at work all around d us. We struggle to see the daily miracles of God’s grace alive in our lives and alive in the lives of others – especially in these days of fear, trepidation and pandemic. The story here challenges us to “see” and admit to our own lack of sight. Hearing the Gospel and witnessing our elect today for their 2nd scrutiny, we should strive to realize that we too often to not see God at work. This realization of our spiritual blindness hopefully on this 4th Sunday of lent can lead to a spiritual healing. It invites us to desire to see God’s work each day!

The Good News in this passage is that Jesus cured the man, just as he willingly cures us. To restore sight is easy for Jesus. So, our first prayer today should be to pray as the man did, “Lord, I want to see!” This humble prayer both acknowledges our spiritual condition and seeks healing.

How Jesus heals this man is also significant. He uses his own spit to make a mud paste and then smears this on the man’s eyes – something most of us would not find appealing. But it does reveal something – namely, it reveals the fact that Jesus can use something so very ordinary as a source of divine grace. 

So often we seek God’s actions in the extraordinary, the astoundingly miraculous. But God is often present to us in the very ordinary. We may be tempted to think God can only work through the heroic and stupendous. The story here is that even in the most ordinary parts of life, God is present. He is present while washing dishes, or cleaning our home, or commuting to work, or standing in a queue, or caring for a family member, or in a casual conversation with a friend, or when we offer another a helping hand. In fact, the more ordinary the activity, the more we should strive to see God’s hand at work. And when we truly “see” Him at work in the ordinary activities of life, we will be healed of our spiritual blindness.

As we witness now the 2nd Scrutiny of our Elect, with them let us pray that spiritually the Lord reach out to cure our own blindness so that as we begin to see His presence in our lives, we will be amazed at the beauty we are given the grace to truly SEE. 

Prayers

Celebrant: Let us pray for these elect whom God has called, that they may remain faithful to him and boldly give witness to the words of eternal life.

READER: That, trusting in the truth of Christ, these Elect may find freedom of mind and heart and preserve it always, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: That, preferring the folly of the cross to the wisdom of the world, our Elect may glory in God alone, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: That, freed from the power of the Spirit, they may put all fear behind them and press forward with confidence, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: That, transformed by the Spirit, our brothers and sisters may seek those things that are holy and just, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: That those families and nations prevented from embracing the faith may be granted true freedom to believe the Gospel, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: That the whole world, which the Father so loves, may attain in the Church complete spiritual freedom, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

READER: For the prayers we carry in our hearts and for the faithful departed ones of our families and parish, (Pause) LET US PRAY TO THE LORD.

CELEBRANT: [Prayer from the Ritual Book] . (all) AMEN.

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