This is the full text of Archbishop Miller’s homily at Holy Rosary Cathedral March 22. Following Mass he prayed the Litany of Loreto, or the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the cathedral steps, blessing the city of Vancouver with the Blessed Sacrament and asking God’s help during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

‘Without interruption for 120 years, Sunday Mass with a congregation has been celebrated in our magnificent Cathedral under the watchful gaze of the Queen of the Holy Rosary. Today that particular tradition has been broken.

Yet, throughout the Archdiocese of Vancouver, our faithful priests are offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the glory of God and for the spiritual good of their parishioners and indeed of the world. The small group here, then, are not the only beneficiaries of this Eucharist. So is each one of you who is living the deprivation of participating in person at Mass and receiving the Lord in Holy Communion.

In addition to the worry for one’s family, fear of economic and financial hardship and constraints on movement that the coronavirus is imposing on us as individuals and communities, men and women of faith are profoundly saddened at not being able to attend Mass. After all, we Catholics are a people of the Sacraments as well as of the Word of God.

That the Word became flesh (cf. Jn 1:14) and continues to dwell among us through visible and tangible signs belongs to the heart of our faith. This is evident, as you heard in today’s Gospel, where Jesus cures the blind man through his touch.

Participation in the celebration of the Eucharist, which we have been blessed to take for granted in every parish of the archdiocese, is temporarily lost to us. We are experiencing what many of our brothers and sisters around the world, and increasingly even in regions of our enormous country (I think here particularly of the north), a situation which have long known. Because the good Lord can draw good from our deprivation, it is my hope that these difficult days will sharpen our spiritual hunger for the Eucharist and lead us to a deeper appreciation of this wondrous gift.

Even without attending Mass, however, this Lent can still be an occasion of conversion and interior renewal, of more authentic prayer and sacrifice in service of our neighbour. And this year it can lead us to an even deeper sense of solidarity with all our brothers and sisters as together we experience “social distancing” – a practice which concretely expresses our love, our care and our concern for our neighbour.

Gospel of the Blind Man

The Gospel account takes place on the Sabbath, today, the Lord’s Day. Jesus makes mud with his own spittle, just as God did in the creation of man from the dust of the ground. He puts it on the eyes of the blind man, and then sends him away to wash in the Pool of Siloam. Upon the man’s return, now able to see, the neighbours can’t understand what happened. Nor can the Pharisees.

What the Evangelist John wants to show is the gradual coming-to-faith of the blind man. While his physical cure is instantaneous, his vision or understanding of who Jesus really is, that grows only gradually. In the beginning he thinks of Jesus as a “man” among others (Jn 9:11); then he considers him a “prophet” (Jn 9:17); and finally his eyes are opened, and he proclaims him “Lord” (Jn 9:38).[1] This is the journey of faith we are all called to make: from a superficial understanding to one that is profound and life-changing.

The question which the Lord Jesus asks the blind man is the high point of the story: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (Jn 9:35), he queries. The man finally recognizes the sign worked by Jesus, and he passes from receiving light to his eyes to experiencing the light of faith: “Lord, I believe!” (Jn 9:38)[2]

Our Story

The blind man’s story is also my story – our story. For much of our life we grope for vision in the midst of darkness, in the midst of our struggles. And we live with so many questions and so many difficulties – and never more so than in the present moment when adversity surrounds us and the future seems so uncertain.

We are, in a sense, living in the dark. What or who will rescue us from our lack of clarity and from our blindness?

Today’s Gospel gives us the answer. Jesus comes to find us and give us light for our path ahead. Just think. The blind man did not even ask Jesus for a cure. Nor did the Lord ask him if he wanted to see. Jesus just came to him – as he does to each one of us. He is always the one who takes the first step, who moves towards us. Whenever we reach out to him, it is always to his waiting hand. He is always there to grasp us to himself. 

The light that the Lord gives for our path is what we call “faith.” Faith illumines; faith brightens up. In a word, faith enables us to see ourselves, our situation and the world – and what is happening in it – as they are seen by God himself. The healed blind man was in physical darkness from birth. The sight Jesus gave him not only allowed him to see the world around him with his own eyes, but also to penetrate the meaning of what is happening. That led him to worship his healer as “Lord,” with the words “I believe” (Jn 9:38).

Holy Rosary Cathedral on Sunday, March 22.

Jesus Is the Light of the World

The sacrament which cures us of our blindness and makes us “come to the light” by being reborn through water and the Holy Spirit is the Sacrament of Baptism. What happened to the man born blind, whose eyes are opened after being cleansed in the water of the pool of Siloam, likewise happens to us in baptism.[3] It is the beginning of God’s bringing us into the light by which we can see how are we to live in response to God’s love for us. Let us take to heart the admonition of St. Paul that we heard Krystyna proclaim in the Second Reading this morning: “Once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of the light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true” (Eph 5:8-9).

Let the light of Christ shine brightly in the world around you, a world in which there is now the darkness of uncertainty, of loneliness and isolation. Acting, living as children of the light requires a radical change of mind‑set, that which is the call of every Lenten season.[4]

Conclusion

During these last days and weeks of Lent we draw closer to the day of greatest darkness – the day when darkness covered Calvary and the Light of the World was briefly extinguished. Yet, as John’s Gospel says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:5). Jesus himself will suffer from the blindness of the world and will die. But by his death the world will be healed from its hatred and fear, its suffering and evil. Jesus will descend into the unseeing darkness of death, but by doing so he will prove that love is stronger than death.

His Resurrection defeated the power of the darkness of evil forever. With the Risen Christ, truth and love triumph over deceit, darkness and sin. In him, God’s light henceforth illumines definitively our human life and the course of history: “I am the light of the world,” Jesus says in the Gospel, “he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8: 12).[5]

So let us pray as this Mass continues that our faith will be enlightened, and that in times that may be dark, we may live as children of the light!

[1] Cf. Benedict XVI, Angelus (3 April 2011).

[2] Cf. Benedict XVI, Angelus (3 April 2011).

[3] Cf.  Francis, Angelus (26 March 2017).

[4] Cf.  Francis, Angelus (26 March 2017).

[5] Cf. Benedict XVI, Angelus (6 August 2006).