Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A

This Sunday our central figure is the man born blind, and there’s an important

link with the Lenten theme of Baptism:

“[Jesus] spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. The he anointed the

man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool at Siloam’

(which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.”

Baptism takes its name from the Greek word baptizein which means to

“plunge” or “immerse”; the plunging into the water symbolises being buried

with Christ, from which you then rise with Christ’s Resurrection as a “new

creature”, as St Paul puts it.

The man born blind doesn’t just have his sight restored – he enters a whole new

way of life. He witnesses heroically to what Christ has done for him and he

calls Him a prophet, which leads to him being expelled, or excommunicated, if

you like, from the synagogue. The new life of baptism means that our lives

change for the better and we are able to see spiritual realities, and that ability is

further enhanced when we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation,

and indeed, the Holy Spirit Himself.

Part of the dispute with the Pharisees is about the sabbath, the Jewish day of

rest. They’d gotten themselves into a bit of a mess because they had so

absolutised the idea of rest that it had become a very restrictive concept – you

couldn’t walk too far, many simple things were considered to be “work” and

were therefore forbidden, and so to actually heal someone was doing far too

much work. How could this man be from God?

Elsewhere in the Gospels, Our Lord heals others on the Sabbath day as well.

The two most important commandments are to love God above all else and our

neighbour as ourselves. So on that basis, Our Lord argues, the Sabbath is the

day to give glory to God and to liberate someone from various infirmities and

afflictions. Luke 13:15-16:

“You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his

donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this

woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be

loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

So this is also one of the reasons why baptisms of infants are ideally supposed

to take place on a Sunday, rather than any other day. Sunday is the day to be

set free from sin and be healed by Christ; Sunday is the day we celebrate the

Resurrection, the new life Christ won for us.

That does also mean that Sunday should be a day free from the usual

obligations, within reason. If we are working 9 – 5 on a Sunday, the same as

any other day, then it’s not really any different from an ordinary weekday, and

also it impedes us giving glory to God, gathering together as the followers of

Christ for the Eucharist, and rejoicing in the liberation Christ won for us. If

we’re slaving away at our usual tasks, it’s not much of a celebration of freedom

and liberation.

The man born blind is expelled, presumably permanently, from the synagogue.

That was what was happening to followers of Christ. But he had found

something so much better. Let’s not forget that he was blind before, reduced to

begging. Now he can see, both physically and spiritually. He has come to the

realisation that Christ is the Son of Man, the living God; and that the Pharisees

are themselves blind and have gotten everything all twisted and knotted up. So

why go back to them?

In Baptism and Confirmation, we are set on a new path with the Lord, given the

grace and the spiritual insight into heavenly realities; we share in Christ’s dying

and rising and His gift of the Holy Spirit; our lives change too; and Sunday

becomes a day of liberation and rejoicing, free from the tyranny of work and

set free to enjoy the new life of the Kingdom of God. Like the man born blind,

we have been made new by Christ. We live a new life – the old one has

nothing to offer.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk