Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” In
John’s Gospel, Jesus lifts a veil of darkness from the eyes of a man who has
been blind from birth and restores his sight. Soon thereafter, darkness enters
again as the man encounters the Pharisees who are relentless in their efforts
to prove Jesus a sinner, and not of God. What does Jesus want to teach us about
seeing and faith?
The Pharisees’ scorn and judgment does not
deter the man who has been healed from proclaiming Jesus as a prophet. The man courageously
challenges the Pharisees’ beliefs about the ways of God. He wisely suggests they
might also desire to be one of Jesus’ disciples. Because he won’t reject Jesus
in favor of Moses, the Pharisees cast the man out of the Jewish community.
Their definition of him as one who is a sinner by reason of his blindness from
birth is now fixed forever.
Imagine the man’s experience of alienation
and fierce desolation. This is when Jesus, compassionate Chosen One, comes a
second time and brings light to the man’s darkness. “Yes, I believe”: beyond
healer and prophet, the man sees Jesus as God and worships Him.
Jesus says, “We must do the deeds of the One
who sent me while it is still day for night is coming, when no one can work.” In
her book The Invention of Wings, Sue
Monk Kidd recounts the true story of the Grimke sisters, two women living in
Charleston, North Carolina in the mid-1800s who believe African Americans and
women are, in their words, “a person under God.” They give up everything:
wealth, family, community and religious tradition. They risk imprisonment, even
death, to emancipate slaves and to acquire equal rights for them and for women.
Despite constant fear, fatigue and
self-doubt, the Grimke sisters negotiate the dark and dangerous terrain of
religion, society and culture. Here, reliance on the Bible and social
convention are used to justify oppression of women and African Americans. Like
Jesus and the healed one, the sisters remain steadfast to their beliefs, and in
the process, are judged as social pariahs. Nevertheless, they bring light to
darkness by raising awareness of the issues regarding the inhumane violations
of slaves and the oppression of women. They lay a solid foundation for women
like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who years later advocate for
women’s rights to vote.
Jesus says, “I came into this world to
execute justice – to make the sightless see and the seeing blind.” How are we
seeing? While the faith of the man whom Jesus heals deepens, the Pharisees
become more deliberate in their rejection of Jesus. They can only see Jesus
through the lens of a sinner, thus they are unable to receive the kind of sight
and freedom Jesus offers. Like the Pharisees, do we falsely believe we possess
the light, while our prejudice and complacency force us to reject the
revelation of God? Do we hold as truth and live our lives strictly according to
what political and religious authorities tell us?
Jesus comes as light to a man who is blind
and a beggar. In his darkness, the man is
willing to be healed and to proclaim the truth about Jesus, no matter the cost.
After his second encounter with Jesus and based on his expression of faith, the
healed one seems freed from the bondage of spiritual blindness. Was his
capacity to see the presence of the Divine in all things heightened? Was he able
to be light for others?
Jesus comes to us, too. How are we responding
to the One who is light? Our contemporary culture promotes self-sufficiency and
rejects the need for God. We radically respond to Jesus when we open our eyes
to the needs of those around us, when we believe we have what it takes to make
meaningful change, and when we do His healing justice work. We can expect joy
and vitality when our hearts and actions align with Jesus.
Jesus Christ Sophia is our wisdom, our Word,
our hope of endless light. Through loving relationships, prayer and Eucharist, Wisdom
Jesus illuminates our way to engage the justice work of lifting people from
their oppressions. He frees us to embrace our prophetic calling and to emerge
from our blindness - personal and political - into the light of Jesus’ ways of
seeing.
As we approach the anticipated Easter reality
of our Risen Christ, let us pray our Eucharist today in solidarity with the
entire Church who welcomes “Lumen Christi,” the Light of Christ. Let us enter
the open, fluid space of sightless seeing, of mystery and not knowing. Let us
trust Divine Presence with us here, lifting the veil of our darkness so we are
free to be light for others.
No comments:
Post a Comment