Fr. Vince’s Homily for the
Fourth Sunday of Lent
A couple of years ago a big story in the news was the killing of two members of the same family. A robber ended up killing a man’s wife and child. He survived. The killer was caught and found guilty. The TV interview of this man was two years later. I know this is an awful start to a homily, but here is my purpose. The man said a line I’ll never forget. When asked how we was doing he said
“I still can’t see my way forward”
.
It intrigued me because it is visual image. He could have said the same thing many different ways.
If you are wondering now what my point is, here it is. Sunday’s Gospel is about the cure of a blind man by Jesus. The full Gospel is very long and has twists and turns, but here is the short version. In Jesus’ culture, a man born blind must have deep sin in himself or family. It disturbed Jesus so much that he spit on the ground and rub it in the man’s eyes and his sight was restored. The religious leaders argued whether it was a hoax or not a real miracle. They harassed this man and so the cured man returned to Jesus as defeated man. He could see, but now he couldn’t see. He couldn’t see what?
He
still can’t see his way forward
.
Sound familiar? Here is the best part. Jesus said “
do you believe in the Son of Man?”
The man who could see but couldn’t see his way forward said “
who is this man?”
And Jesus said the best line:
He is the one speaking to you now!
We are in a worldwide, national, and personal crisis! Things are collapsing around us. We are asked to do things we never even dreamed in our worst nightmare. We are still unclear who will have a job or who can survive in business. That doesn’t even address the most vulnerable among us. I don’t know about you, but it frightens me, and I’m probably not horribly affected. It’s a nightmare, not because we are in our worst shape at the moment, but
we still can’t’ see our way forward.
So we are the blind man or the man in my story; take your pick.
What is the way forward?
Share with everyone if you have a solution. In my comments that I sent to you on Tuesday, I said that if you haven’t had a crisis of faith, you’re going to get one now. It’s a time in which the crisis is everywhere. It doesn’t seem to care about location, gender, age, or status. It’s a moment that we are in together as a family, a parish, and a nation. Isn’t is an odd feeling to know we are in this together, yet we have to self-isolate.
I sent Bishop Joensen some information because he wanted to know about my first days here as Fr. Pisut is taking an important time to care for his health. He wrote back and said,
“amid everything we are confronting these days….this is holy work — where else would we rather be!”
Hey, Jesus is in our midst wanting to do his holy work — where else would we want him to be. Where else do we need to be? It’s here and it’s now. Jesus says to us
“do you believe in the Son of Man?”
And we ask,
“who is at person?”
Jesus says,
“It is I speaking to you now”!
I know what I want to say to him now. I bet you do as well.
“I still can’t see my way forward”
It makes us want to spit on the ground and rub it in our eyes, hoping we can see more clearly. Jesus says to us that it is
“together”
!
Stay strong everybody!
