How Blind are You?

(John 9:1-41)

In this Sunday’s Gospel we have the story of Jesus giving sight to the man born blind.  But the Pharisees and the leaders of the people do not want to accept that Jesus has the power to give sight to the blind.  They prefer to deny what they are being told.   Although the parents of the blind man give witness that he was born blind, they insist he was not.  When that does not work they claim that since Jesus had mixed the paste, he has broken the Sabbath by doing unnecessary work and therefore he cannot be a man of God.  They are determined to be blind so that they will not have to see Jesus as the true prophet who is coming into the world.  The truth is staring them in the face but they are determined not to see.  The light has come into the world but they prefer to remain in the darkness.

How often do we do the same?  How often, just because I do not like someone, do I refuse to see any good they do?  Because I do not want to change habits I have gotten used to, I refuse to see them as sinful or harmful.  I prefer to tell myself lies than to change.  I remain blind because I do not want to face the truth.  We all have our blind spots; we all have ways of not hearing the truth when it makes us uncomfortable.  Sometimes we kill the messenger or ruin his or her good reputation because we don’t like the message.  There is an old saying: there is none so blind as those who do not want to see.

As we journey through Lent it is a time for us to examine our consciences to look at our blind spots, to see issues in our lives that we try to avoid, to open our eyes to the truth we prefer to keep in the dark.

This weekend as we keep the sixth anniversary of the death of the Great Pope John Paul II we remember his words of encouragement: “Be not afraid to open the doors of your heart to Christ”.  

Be not afraid to look at your blind spots, be only afraid to live in untruth, sin, darkness.  Jesus is the light of the world, bring all your life into his light and let his love and mercy take away all blindness from your life.

Fr. John Harris OP.