Blinded by the Light

4LentA, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 30, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            William Temple writes, “The man born blind from birth is every man.  For it is a part of that sin of the world which the Lamb of God beareth away that by nature we are blind, until our eyes are opened by Christ the Light of the world.” Jesus is the light of the world and in him there is no darkness at all or as put in this story, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”  This story is a story of contrasts: the bright light of Jesus and the darkness of blindness.  Jesus addresses both physical and spiritual blindness.  He also addresses the notion that sin is connected to physical defects.  Some of us have a tendency to feel abandoned by God when we are ill and we say to ourselves, “Why me? Why has this sickness come to me?  Why must I be the one to suffer?  What will become of me?”  That last question in particular is one asked by people who have been severely ill more than one time. The biggest worry for them is, “What if I die this time?” It is important to note that much of the discourse in the gospel text is when Jesus is not present.  Some say this story is a reflection of the early Christian community. Many people were believers in Jesus, but were hiding in fear of the Jewish community.  This account appears to be a story about the early community’s struggle to be a witness to the world around them.  At the same time, the stories of Jesus are continuing to circulate and become a source of comfort in the midst of suffering.

But bringing us further in time into the 21^st century, just what might this story mean to us? Words are used to describe what a person is thinking or doing.  Sometimes we say them to ourselves and sometimes we say them out loud.  We are taught from childhood what is proper in our language and behavior.  We hear people say things like, “That man is fat.”  “That woman is ugly.”  “That person is deaf.”  “That person is blind.”  We also hear meaningless descriptions like, “He has white hair and uses a walker or wheelchair.”  That is meaningless if you live in a skilled nursing or assisted living facility where that describes most men living there.  The problem with descriptions either used to your face or behind your back is that they can be interpreted negatively.  We are aware that in the time of Jesus, there were people who were physically impaired or less able that were not only social outcasts, but were also not allowed to worship in the temple.  Because of their so called deformities, according to the law of Judaism, they were truly seen as somehow less than other people.  If society deems certain groups of people as somehow not worth as much, those people and sometimes their families as well, also learn to feel lesser than others.  Some women feel insecure without a man.  It comes out in conversation when they project that value onto other women by trying to set them up with an eligible male relative or they constantly ask if you have a boyfriend.  They feel that is what makes them happy, so it should also make other women happy.  Other women will say things like, they have always been fat and people never knew when they were pregnant, because they were always fat.  They become preoccupied with being fat to the point that it becomes their whole identity and way of relating to the world.  They become preoccupied with being with a man that widowhood never quite feels right.  The same happens when a person who was fat becomes skinny. 

            That is one of the things this text tells us.  The man born blind, blind all his life has his whole identity, his whole sense of self tied up in what it means to be blind.  As a result, being a beggar is a way of life.  In my line of work, as a nurses’ aide, I don’t like to tell people that I was once a mental health counselor for this very reason.  People know what psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors do.  It’s something deeper than being the one who sees only your outside body, cleans you from top to bottom, and watches out for your hydration and nutrition.  But if you treat someone as a person, as Jesus did the blind man, they can respond; and that is deeper than accepting the status quo. You are not your diagnoses. That is deeper than an aide who is paid only to do the physical work of an aide. The occupational hazard of being an aide is that people want to know who you are. Residents do not accept a mere robot to care for them even if that is all they are paid to do.  However, I have been counseled by my supervisor to not share personal things, because of the reason that is in this text; it causes arguments and controversy.  Relationships are messy no matter how one goes about it.

            The picture of God we have here in Jesus is that God knows who you are, accepts who you are, and expects you to be the best human you can be. On the surface, we may only see that the man born blind is simply asserting his belief in Jesus’ healing.  He asserts emphatically, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

            To demonstrate how profound a change it is to go from not seeing to seeing, I offer a true story about a woman who was deaf from birth.  The woman’s name is Joanne.  She is 40 years old and she is from the United Kingdom.  She was born with Usher’s Syndrome, a genetic mutation inherited from her parents. She never heard anything until she had an operation that gave her cochlear implants.  A week after her surgery, she had the implants turned on. Joanne, in a video shot of her sat across from a hospital employee who cautioned that her new sense of hearing might be overwhelming at first. As the worker begins to recite the days of the week, Joanne is moved to tears. Even though after the surgery she was still blind, she reacted further with verbal outbursts of joy when she continued to hear with her own ears another woman’s voice.  After that, she listened to John Lennon, a famous Beatle, singing a popular song.

            Our gospel text is a conversion story to be sure.  It is important to observe that as the blind man who now sees, continues to tell others about once being blind and now seeing.  Notice that each time the man talks about his healing experience and encounter with Jesus, his faith in Jesus grows.  As we draw near to the cross, our stories from the gospel of John get longer and more involved.  We come face-to-face with the arguments for and against Jesus.  Some support Jesus and others mock him.  The healing is there for all to see, it seems beyond denial.  There is a stark contrast between Jesus as the light of the world and the blindness of the Pharisees, those who dare to ask Jesus, “Surely we are not blind, are we?”

            In spite of opposition or the blatant indifference of neighbors, members of the Jewish faith, parents, and the Pharisees, the man is persistent in telling the story about how a man named Jesus brought him his eyesight.  He takes no heed when the emotions of all involved are stirred.  He is vocal about what he sees and hears about Jesus’ action on his behalf.  Jesus intervenes at the end and elicits a simple statement of faith from the man, another who has no name, like the Samaritan woman at the well.

            By nature, we are all blind.  The blind man had never seen just as Joanne had never heard.  To become a Christian is not to recover what was lost, but to receive that which was never possessed, namely, the grace of God. Jesus, Son of God, have mercy. Amen.