Welcome to Day 21 of Lent and Day 21 of our reflections on the gospel of John!  Thanks so much for listening.  To subscribe by email, go here. 

A Reflection on John 9:1-41

“Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.”  (v 32)

A man born blind. Darkness is all he knows. He sits near the temple, begging, unable to work because of circumstances beyond his control. The darkness before his eyes matches the darkness in his soul, as he hears the whispers day in and day out, in one form or another, similar to the disciples’ question to Jesus: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (v 2).  Shame weighs heavy on the man’s soul as he believes what he has heard all his life, that this blindness has a cause, that he or his parents are at fault. And what could he do? There is nothing to do but beg and hope that some would have pity on him. There is no hope of healing because for a man born into blindness, there is no cure.

But then he hears the words of Jesus: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents…” Could this be true? The smallest of cracks begins to break through the black wall of shame around his heart. Small, but big enough to let a bright beam of Light shine in. He hears the teacher’s words: “I am the light of the world,” and feels the wet, cold clay on his eyelids. “Go, wash,” the teacher tells him. So he does. And the dark wall of shame in his soul comes crumbling down as he blinks his eyes and takes in the light for the first time. He can see. Not only that, but the joy bubbling up in his heart is like nothing he has known before. The darkness is gone.

The Pharisees question the man, but he refuses to let their disbelief and resentment bring him back down into the darkness, “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They cast him out, but they cannot cast out his new-found hope.

Jesus, you are the light of the world. Only you can break through the walls that shame has built in my heart. Lord, I believe. Let your light shine in my soul, that it may shine out to all the world.

Scripture quotations are from The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright ©1965, 1966 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved worldwide.