"Who Is He, Sir?"
March 2, 2008

Readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent

Reading 1: 1 Sam. 16:1b, 6–7, 10–13a

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 23:1–3a, 3b–4, 5, 6

Reading 2: Eph. 5:8–14

Gospel: Jn. 9:1–41 or 9:1, 6–9, 13–17, 34–38

Link to Readings

By Father Frank Pavone

The Lenten season is marked by the urgent call to repent. It is a call to make a conscious and free choice to turn away from sin, which leads to death, and embrace the Gospel, which leads to life. It is, in fact, the full flowering of the call Moses issued in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I have set before you life and death . . . Choose life!”

Today’s Gospel passage is that of the man born blind (Jn. 9). This passage forms a triduum, along with those of last Sunday and next Sunday, emphasizing the baptismal themes of water (the woman at the well), light (the healing of the man born blind), and life (the raising of Lazarus). These powerful readings remind those preparing for baptism, as well as all the baptized, what this baptismal life is all about.

We see here the drama of the will to accept or reject the call of Christ. The man born blind receives his physical sight early in the story, but the rest of the drama traces the birth of his spiritual sight. The story shows his growing awareness of who Jesus is. At first, he calls Jesus a man (v. 11); then a prophet (v. 17); then one who is “from God” (v. 33); and finally, “Lord” (v. 38). He comes to see who Jesus is, because he has a willingness to believe. His heart is open: “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” (v. 36).

This attitude of willingness stands in stark contrast to the stubbornness and bad will of the Pharisees. Though confronted with the same evidence of physical healing, they try to explain away that evidence by interrogating the man and his parents, and then by portraying Jesus as a sinner, and finally by literally throwing the evidence out the door by ejecting the healed man from their midst (see v. 34).

“That’s Your Opinion”

The drama is repeated every day as our society struggles with the “culture of death,” which shows itself fundamentally in the ongoing tragedy of abortion. The evidence is the same for all to see, made clearer than ever by genetics and fetology, that abortion kills a human being. Some receive that evidence and, with a willing heart, choose life. Others show the stubbornness of the Pharisees and cling to their own ideology. For me the starkest example of this was the day a group of pro-life people conducted a wake for an aborted baby in front of an abortion facility. The baby, the size of a hand, was visible in a small white casket. Some pro-abortion demonstrators looked at the child, and a pro-lifer challenged them, “Look at the evidence right before your eyes. This is a baby!” Believe it or not, the person’s response was “That’s your opinion!!”

Not to know the child in the womb is not a sin. But the refusal to know is. Jesus declares to the Pharisees at the end of the drama of John 9, “If you were blind, there would be no sin in that, but ‘We see,’ you say, and your sin remains” (v. 41). This echoes what Jesus teaches at the end of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Once the Rich Man realizes there is no way to escape his suffering in hell, he asks that Lazarus be sent back from the dead to warn his brothers. But he is told, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them . . . If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then neither will they be convinced even if one should rise from the dead.” Again, the problem is not that there isn’t enough evidence about what is right; the problem is an unwillingness of the heart to receive it.

Suffering for the Good News

So it often is with us. We think that we would do the right thing if only we saw a vision or heard God’s voice thunder from the sky. That is not necessarily true. If we are not obeying now, we wouldn’t necessarily obey then, either. We have all we need right now to know the right way to live. The Gospels, the Church, the examples of the saints—all show us the way of obedience to God.

Jesus draws nearer to us, moreover, when we suffer amidst that obedience. Notice in today’s story that it was when Jesus heard that the man born blind had been thrown out of the synagogue that He sought him out to offer him the gift of faith. Doing Jesus’ work on earth, including the fundamental task of defending life, means suffering for Him, and suffering for Him means drawing closer to Him.

“Repent and believe the Good News!” What good news? The good news, in the words of Evangelium Vitae, that “life is always a good . . . manifestation of God in the world, a sign of His presence, a trace of His glory” (no. 34). This Lent, let us choose life again!

Father Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life, president of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, and a member of CUF's advisory council. He is a contrubutor to Lay Witness magazine.

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