Gosh, it’s been a while. I recently served three terms on a grand jury. That was quite an experience, but it took all my time! So, I’m back. Here’s the latest. Also as a bonus I’ll post our parishes rendition of the Lorica (Breastplate of St. Patrick in a subsequent post.
I hate daylight savings time. One would have to search high and low to find a more absurd and universal way of disturbing everyone’s life. It is especially absurd in subarctic latitudes such as our own where the sun shines 20 hours in the summer and 4 hours in the winter.
Reminds of that trial they were having in Utgiavik, (Barrow). The lawyer looked at the defendant and said, “So, where were YOU on the night of November through March?!”
Then again, the Good Lord seems to make a habit of bringing blessings out of absurdity. Perhaps it is our extreme daylight shifts that make us more receptive to what the Gospel has to say about moving from darkness into light, especially when we understand it as moving from the darkness of sin into the light of grace.
Take a good look at the whole of John’s gospel and you will see how the themes of darkness and light are everywhere. Today’s story about the man born blind is one such passage. It’s of special note that the man is not named. This is a common literary device used in scripture. The reader is invited to place themselves in the role of the unnamed character.
In ancient Palestine, blindness was seen as a curse resulting from sin, either by oneself or one’s near ancestor. That is why the man was held in contempt by the elders and considered steeped in sin from his birth.
In a way, each of us is very much like the blind man. We were all subject to the effects of original sin and the curse which came with that, which is death. But thanks be to God that Christ redeemed us by paying the penalty for our sin by his own death on the Cross. In baptism, we enter into the light of grace won for us in the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus.
The final irony of the story is that the elders who think they are the ones who are in the light, show by their obstinance that they really are not. They see Jesus as a threat to the status quo and to their power base. In rejecting Christ, they reject the light.
Christ has said that we are the light of the world. This Laetare Sunday, let us shine with the light and the joy of the gospel to all those we will meet this week.