Forth Sunday of Lent
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March 22, 2020In today’s Gospel, it is interesting that Jesus does not just cure the man born blind at that exact moment as he has for some other miracles of healing.
Instead he puts clay on his eyes and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam. The pool of Siloam was a reservoir of water to be sent. It was streamed into Jerusalem to be used. It was sent to Jerusalem. The very name ‘Siloam’ means ‘to be sent.’
Jesus teaches us in challenging ways. He cured some people by just an encounter with them, and others he uses a system of event such as with this man to convey a deeper message. As the man is washed and can see, he receives his sight in the pool to which the water will be sent to others.
Thus, Jesus is teaching that through the eyes of Faith, we first come to know Jesus more deeply and intimately, as we all want to do. Yet it does not stop there. Once we gain the sight we need, we then must take what we see, what we see spiritually, into the world.
The pool of Siloam for that man is equal to our pool of baptism. When we are washed in baptism, we are washed clean of the blindness of sin, enlightened to see spiritually, and commissioned to take that into the world. Although we are weak and still fall, we are washed clean again in every confession and at every Eucharist.
The Eucharist is where we physically and personally touch Jesus. The end of our Mass is the dismissal of being sent. The blind man could have been told to use any body of water for cleansing, but Jesus specifically wanted him to use this pool, emphasizing the need for the man to be sent by Jesus, or to ‘go’ to others after being touched and healed by Jesus with the message of the Good News. We are sent by the touch of Jesus. Are we going?
Let us also see through this pandemic without the focus on fear or anxiety, but how Jesus is with us through it. When the tenth plague came to Egypt at the time of Moses, the plagues were both a hardship and an incredible blessing. For the Egyptians it was not good, they could not see the hand of God in the midst of the plague. For the Jewish people, it was an incredible blessing, leading them away from slavery to the Promised Land.
Although hardships, and possibly with less pay, if you experience a lay off or less work, if we allow ourselves to see through the pandemic, we can see the incredible blessings. Families are spending more time together, neighbors are checking on each other for needs, many are realizing the ‘extras’ in our lives, are not so important, and many people are turning more to prayer.
We are building stronger community and stronger Faith as we turn to Jesus. At Easter during the Exulted we pray, “O happy fault of Adam who brought us the Savior.” How could we ever call a sin happy? Yet the horribleness of sin gave us a Savior, the Son of God.
The sad sin became a blessing for all through the hand of God. Let us turn this pandemic into, ‘O happy time of pandemic, which is strengthening our faith and building communities and relationship.’
If you have any needs or concerns, please call me,
Fr. Tony
412-761-1552 ext. 201
