Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year A
First reading: 1 Sm 16:1b, 6–7, 10–13
Second reading: Eph 5:8–14
Gospel reading: Jn 9:1–41

In this Sunday’s readings, Jesus gives sight to a man born blind and reproaches those who think they see, but are really blind. St. Paul tells the Ephesians that though they were once in darkness, they must now “live as children of the light.”

Supernatural realities “can seem obscure to human reason and experience,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Without God’s gift of faith, we would remain “in the dark” about them. Accordingly, we speak of “the light of faith.”

This light gives us greater “certainty” about the truth of supernatural realities than “the light of natural human reason” can give us about any human knowledge, for “it is founded on the very word of God, who cannot lie,” says the Catechism.

The “light of faith” is like sunlight, by which we see things in the day that we cannot see at night, or like x-rays, by which we see through a rough wooden crate to the gold and jewels inside.

However, our eyes must be able to detect this light. “The eye is the body’s lamp,” Jesus said. “If your eyes are good, your body will be filled with light.” Accordingly, we also speak of “the eyes of faith,” which can see more than ordinary eyes because they are sensitive to “the light of faith.”

That is why there are such huge differences between the “faithful” and the “faithless” on important subjects like pain, sorrow, sin, happiness, marriage, children, education, life, and death. In fact, the differences are so great that the “faithful” and the “faithless” have trouble communicating, as if they speak different languages, or as if the “faithful” can see while the “faithless” are blind.

For example, the faithless look at a cancer patient or an old person and see valueless suffering, while the faithful “see” a soul co-operating in Jesus’ redemption of the world; the faithless regard a human embryo as a bit of disposable biological material, while the faithful “see” a unique person called to live with God in heaven; the faithless look at the Catholic Church and see only a human institution whose members are sinners, while the faithful also “see” that her head is Jesus, “the light of the world,” seated “at the right hand of God.”

“Those who believe, see; they see with a light that illumines their entire journey, for it comes from the risen Christ, the morning star that never sets,” said Pope John Paul II in Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith).

The faithless judge supernatural truth against their own standards or those of the world, while the faithful accept it on the authority of Christ and his Church, just as a child believes on the authority of his parents.

They know that they will not always understand, any more than a child always understands what his parents say. They know that unless we trust like children, as Jesus said, we will not enter the Kingdom of God.

The faithless see only arguments that demand their assent, but the faithful see a person who asks for their confidence. They realize that in this confidence, they will often have to trust beyond the arguments. They know that we are finite and fallen human beings, while Jesus is perfect God. They know that Christ founded his Church to tell us about God, give us his life, and teach us his ways.

For example, when Jesus spoke of eating his body and drinking his blood, many people left him. However, Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life. We have come to believe; we are convinced that you are God’s holy one.” He said not that he understood what Jesus meant, but that he knew who Jesus was.

Such childlike trust is not opposed to reason. God wants a loving interpersonal relationship with us, and trust is an essential ingredient.

Father Hawkswell is again teaching The Catholic Faith in Plain English with new insights in print and YouTube form at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. He is also teaching the course in person on Sundays (2–4 p.m. at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, 4885 Saint John Paul II Way, 33rd Avenue and Willow Street, Vancouver) and Mondays (10 a.m.–noon in St. Anthony’s Church Hall, 2347 Inglewood Avenue, West Vancouver). The title of the next session is Sin and Forgiveness.

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