FRUITFUL OPPORTUNITY [1]

IF YOU pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.  [Isa 58:10] 

BEGOTTEN OF MYSTERY

1.  Without exaggeration, we may say that Jesus’ cure of the man born blind is a powerful recapitulation of the creation of light. At first reading, the narration of the young man’s cure and the storm of opposition it engenders, appears to be simple and straightforward. Yet, within the following verses is hidden the possibility of a unique and intriguing interpretation. In the beginning  [cf. Gen 1:1], God created the young man of whom John’s gospel devotes an entire chapter. Because of his blindness in this case, a sign of inchoate or rudimentary faith, he not see with his eyes of sight nor see clearly with his eyes of faith. His world was without form and void.  [cf. Gen 1:2]  Jesus’ disciples marvel at the deep darkness cast over the face of the sightless man, assuming that such a phenomenon could only have resulted from sin. By no means, says the Lord, for whom not all darkness is a result of sin.

DARKNESS AS IDEAL

2.  The creation account in chapter one of Genesis reveals the darkness of fecundity. Jesus accepts this kind of darkness as a prototypical, even ideal environment in which the “works of God might be made manifest”.  [Jn 9:3]  Now the incarnate Christ, in whom was life and through whom all things came into existence  [cf. Jn 1:3-4], spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay”  [Jn 9:6]: Looking intently upon the man, Jesus literally “was moving over the face” of his own image and his own likeness.  [cf. Gen 1:26]  Knowing from the outset that light is good, Jesus “separated the light from the darkness” in the man’s eyes  [cf. Gen 1:4]  and in sight of the man’s neighbors and the religious authorities who jealously guarded the Sabbath.  [cf. Jn 9:8, 14-15ff]  After washing in the pool of Siloam, the young man knew the light as Day and darkness as Night.  [cf. Gen 1:5]  In the evening and morning of this singular day, the enemies of Jesus rose up to condemn him for curing the young man’s blindness on the Sabbath. They demanded that Jesus defend himself against the Law and those whose work was its preservation.

 REFRACTIONS OF LIGHT

3.  The Prologue of John’s gospel is renown for its majestic synthesis of the creation narrative and its mastery of Christocentric theology. Though not exclusively, the story of the man born blind sheds light on the evangelist’s purpose in writing his Prologue. Every creative act is a profound meditation upon the mystery of the birth of the cosmos, the birth of man into relationship with God, and the procession of God’s people through time and space to their heavenly homeland.  [cf. Heb 11:14]  While contemplating the vast panorama of primordial events, we tend to overlook a crucial truth, hidden in obscurity: The light which would become Day is conceived in the maternity of darkness to await the moment of its coming forth by the command of God. God wills the unity, that is to say, the running together of the elements of light and dark to which man--in the manner of Adam’s taxonomic powers  [cf. Gen 2:19-20] and subsequent fall from grace [cf. Gen 3]--ascribes a dichotomy even when the sacred narrative is silent regarding antithesis or contrariety.

MYSTERY OF DARKNESS

4.  At the outset, it would appear that light and darkness are the same substance; certainly, these primordial elements possess unity and perfection in their diversity. They share the same reality. God calls the collegiality of light and darkness good. God names the unity of light and darkness as light. By this, we learn that God confers upon light a mission superior to that of darkness and names himself as its destiny. In the hierarchy of God’s creation, light is perfected only by separating it apart from the maternal darkness. God calls the active principle of light out of the darkness. Darkness, the passive principle, having conserved light for a time, graciously yields it. We can say that the light was begotten out of the mystery of darkness. That God draws the light out of darkness is not to condemn the darkness. In point of fact, as John’s gospel pointedly reminds us, Our Lord affirms the young man’s blindness as a fruitful opportunity for the manifestation of the works of God. The physics of light, a brilliant inspiration, the splendor of the truth, the mind enlightened, a radiant face, shining eyes--the sum of these is but a thought of our sovereign Lord whose ways are higher than man’s ways and whose thoughts are higher than man’s thoughts [cf. Isa 55:8] but who wills these refractions of light to comfort and aide man in strengthening the nobility of his will in readiness to journey on God’s Holy Way. [cf. Isa 35:8; 55:11] 

BLIND TO THE TABLE OF PLENTY

 5.  Analogous to the close of day, is Jesus’ sense of urgency to “work the works of him who sent me”  [Jn 9:4]  before time yields to its own night and the finality of death overtakes him in his passion. “I am the light of the world,” he cries.[Jn 8:12; 9:5]  Begotten of the mystery of God, Christ’s mission is to initiate humanity into the “secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification”.  [1Cor 2:7]  One expects all human beings to affirm that light is good and having defined what constitutes darkness, to avoid the things that entice souls into tenebrous gloom: Live virtuously and walk in the light; live sinfully and walk in darkness.  [cf. Jn 12:36;1Jn 1:6-7]  And human beings, are to heed God’s creation of light as paraenesis (Lat. exhortatory message); all men must choose to separate light and darkness, to seek grace and reject sin. We speak of fruitful discernment. Discernment means to distinguish and understand the things that are unseen from the things that are seen. It is, as it were, to see through to the sources, presupposing authenticity and a higher authority than the one making the discernment. The religious authorities who challenge the authenticity of Jesus and oppose his ministry are not to be faulted for confronting the issues of morality, religious discipline and the nature of the human person.

STROBES OF SHAME AND GUILT

6.  To their fault, however, they unfortunately insist on doing so within the parochial confines of their human limitations. Caught in a trap identified by the writer of the Wisdom of Solomon centuries earlier, “they were unable from the good things that are seen to know him who exists, nor did they recognize the craftsman while paying heed to his works”.  [WisSol 13:1]  Thus, they and the people whom they ruled continued to yearn for God with hunger unsatisfied. Without recognition of the works of God or the Messiah who works them, they are blind to the table of plenty offered to them by the God of Moses. Inconceivable to them is the possibility that darkness can be fruitful and untouched by sin. They are overcome by spiritual exhaustion, alternately shutting their eyes to the light of revelation and opening them to dispel their unhappiness: There is too much light! There is too much darkness! Many Christians hide the light of Christ under a hamper of fear and ignorance.  [Mt 5:15]  They acquiesce to degrading situations even as they observe the ugliness about them. They cling to sin, mediocrity and abusive situations hoping to glean any light in them at all. Tragically, many persons grow insensitive to the brilliant and persistent strobes of shame and guilt, the last alarms of conscience protecting one’s personal integrity before he abandons the light of interior truth.^[2]

PARADOX OF SIGHT

7.  The person who confronts the Light of Divinity must begin by acknowledging the lack of it with himself. This activity is not without risk. As a prerequisite, it insists that man abandons his rigid, personalistic definitions of pleasure-seeking and hegemonic autonomy. He must then step onto the Holy Way, the arduous path that leads to the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of God set on a hill.  [cf. Mt 5:14-16; cf. Psa 46:4, 87:3; Heb 11:10,16], where all are disciples and none are master but Christ Jesus. We would do well to emulate spiritually the remarkable accomplishments associated with human birth. Consider the joy of human conception and the beauty of a mother whose child shelters in the warmth and protection of her maternal body. Consider as well that the labor of birth signals a life of seemingly impossible demands for the newborn who is thrust into the world, who opens his eyes in the first moments following the trauma of birth. Experiencing a paradox of sight, he yearns to open his eyes, yet the light cannot help him to see. Although his eyelids tremble and flutter in an attempt to accept illumination, they close to protect him from its harshness. Leaving the sheltering darkness and warmth of his mother’s nurturing womb, a newborn infant must absorb the shocking intrusion of the world’s natural and manufactured light through his sensitive eyes. Nevertheless, the infant child must very soon keep his eyes open to the world about him, for they are a stylus which writes upon the tablet of his mind. Dare we do less in presenting our souls to the light of divine revelation?^[3] The religious authorities who reject Jesus, illustrative of confusion and rigidity, reveal much about human behavior. Having inherited cultural and interpretive glosses of light and darkness in covenantal terms, and arrogating to themselves the last word on the subject, it cannot be surprising that Pharisee, Sadducee and Priest resist what they perceive as an invasion against all they hold dear.^[4] 

WHAT IS DEFINED IS DEFENDED

8.  Regardless of one’s age or circumstances, what one defines, he defends.  The history of the world begins with the tyranny of the mind. This has less to say about fanatic single-mindedness than that regimented tyranny is a metastasizing hydra^[5] behind which one may give fear and incoherence free reign across his ubiquitous and mutable personal will. Would that all men were tyrants or none! The immortal soul, closely ordered to the divine; is the defining center of the human person around which--to use the solar system as an example--mind, heart, body and intuition are ordered. To treat the human intellect and will separately without reference to the soul as the substantial form and unifying principle of the body is, by analogy, to elevate or exalt reflected light over its source. The human intellect or will, either considered jointly or apart, cannot transcend the soul any more than a planet is ruled by its moons or rings. Man’s task is to seek the right order of human existence, a balance which recognizes the soul as the center of the human person. Having accomplished this, he must grant to his soul the requisite submission of his intellect, emotions and intuition no less than his mortal body. Only then may one humbly emulate Christ of the Ages who, “when all things are subjected to him” will subject himself as gift to the Father “that God may be everything to every one”. [1Cor 15:28]  In governing its submissive members as “instruments of righteousness” [Rom 6:13]  for sanctification  [cf. Rom 6:19], the soul prophesies the right order of mankind’s submission to the living God.  [cf. Heb 9:14]  Moreover, the Church, though comprised of many members, is “one body in Christ, and individually members one of another”.  [Rom 5:12; cf. 1Cor 12:12]  Therefore, the Church submits to the revealed Word of God to provide a living example of right order to unbelievers who dwell in disorder and darkness.  

PRIMACY OF DIVINE WILL

9.  John the Baptist, a prophet of Israel descended from Moses--here we recall that Jesus of Nazareth was tagged a religious nullius filius  (Lat. illegitimate child)--attracts many followers who are enamored of his authentic asceticism and fiery intellect. He proclaims the right order of his and Israel’s relationship to Christ^[6] “I baptize you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  [Lk 3:16]  The apostle Peter, distracted by issues concerning “the disciple whom Jesus loved, who had lain close to his breast at the supper”  [Jn 21:20], questioned the beloved disciple’s place and role within the leadership of the Church: “Lord, what about this man?”  [Jn 21:21]  Jesus, knowing the frailty of the body’s members, reasserts the primacy of his divine will and the right order of spiritual life, especially in the life of a disciple: “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!”  [Jn 21:20-22]  With these words of Christ, we are commanded to become participants in the story of salvation, to emerge in the sight of all as magnificent works of our loving Creator. Whereas the Book of Genesis emphasizes the creation of mankind, John’s gospel identifies the formative question that every individual human must answer: Am I receiving the fullness of Christ Our Light into my heart? Am I accepting Christ’s power to become a child of God? [cf. Jn1:12]  Inasmuch as the human creature responds in the totality of his or her being and not as a composite of parts, the unity implicit in the journey from sin to redemption has much in common with the explicit unity of Christ's passion, death and resurrection.

LIGHT OF DEFINITIVE VICTORY

10. The human person undertaking the journey of divinization through the saving event of the resurrection affirms life and the subsistent good of creation by rejecting the urge to capitulate or flee into a thicket of human presumptions. Fortunately God meets us where we are on the road and how we are in the depths of the human heart! Whereas man is often unwilling and unable to sustain relationships, God is always willing and able to embrace the human person who cries out to him in praise or need. God relates to us as a loving Father, a loving Friend, a Lover, and as a loving Spouse of the Church. What Our Lord asks is quite reasonable: that every relationship with him counts for something! Anything is better than nothing! Activity is better than passivity! More is better than less! Best is better than good! This, after all, is what we expect of one another in human relationships. Accordingly, the resurrection of Christ beckons us by the light of its definitive victory to recognize that human struggles and disappointments--the man born blind, the religious leaders who shuttered their eyes of faith--are never sufficient of themselves to break one’s relationship with God. If God offers us little with which to cling in the midst of incoherence and incalculability, except a total trust in him, we may cry out with Christ, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?” [Ps 22:1; Mt 27:46; Mk 15:34]  Illumined by the paradoxical petition “lead us not into temptation” in the Lord's Prayer [Mt 6:13], the words of the psalmist are actually a confession of our revolutionary, unconditional dependence on the sovereign God and the supremacy of his divine gifts! 

CUT, REFINED AND POLISHED

11.  Can the human person be compared to an unfinished gemstone, a diamond in the rough? If this analogy is not overwrought, perhaps we may ask: How can the light of God enter an unfinished stone? How can it shine with the love of the Master if it remains buried in the ground? Know then, creature of God, that by passing through the doors of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church  [SACRAMENTARY Profession of Faith (Nicene Creed) p.368], you cannot be unaware that God is your Master Jeweler. You are avowing to your family and friends that you desire God to cut, refine and polish what is rough and unfinished. Surely the good God has entrusted this work to his beloved Church as its proper mission. You are asking the Master Jeweler to carefully craft each facet of your priceless personhood--not only to enhance the beauty of such a precious jewel, but to enable it to reflect the light from above. Your task is to cooperate with God as a disciple in every facet of your lives. You have declared to the world your choice of the setting of God's Church, the gold buckler bought from Christ and “refined by fire”.  [Rev 3:18]  Together, they are a most suitable ornament and setting, one which calls forth the beauty of its members, refracting God's light in all directions, reflecting the kaleidoscope of his creation within, and adorning the hand of Christ's Church which wears it. Cut, refined and polished, may you reflect the light from above in serving God’s chosen people and illuminating a dolorous world with the glories of the gospel:  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”  [Jn 1:14] 

GOD'S LUMINOUS MAJESTY

12.  Thus, John’s glorious gospel blesses the Genesis story of creation with a new interpretation of the meaning of light and creation. The Gospel writer, inspired by the Holy Spirit, invites us to see our place in the panorama of God’s creation. Hence, John’s gospel plumbs the depth of the prophet Isaiah’s words: “Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and rejoice.”  [Isa 60:5]  This day Our Lord seeks to dwell not in the midst of a learned and contentious professoriate but in courageous hearts that seek to do the will of the Father.  [cf. Mk 3:31-35]  Jesus Christ, “a lamb standing as though it had been slain” [Rev 5:6], quickens the humble and willing heart with the fruitful bounty of the Spirit: faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, love, peace, patience and self-control.  [cf. Gal 5:22-23]  He reveals himself to us in ways of peace no less than in ways of wisdom: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who practice it.” [Psa 111: 10]  Apart from human suffering, the fen of human fright or a spirit of servility, the fear of the Lord is a wise foundation on which the faithful servant of Yahweh stands [cf. Pro 9:10]. To fear the Lord is to delight in God’s transcendent, luminous majesty. [cf. Sir 1:11-30] It is to satisfy one’s thirst in the fountain of living water. [cf. Jn 4:10] It is to draw near to salvation and the healing of one’s wounded soul: “Rise up, come to our help! Deliver us for the sake of thy steadfast love!” [Psa 44:26]  Unquestionably, the disciple who approaches God in this way surrenders to the transformation of his very self. Whether stalwart or broken, celebrated or persecuted, he drinks the Saviour’s life-giving water that he may never thirst. [cf. Jn 4:14] Further, he renounces personal greed and corporate hegemonism, preferring that God make of him light in the Lord [cf. Eph 5:8] for the salvation and care of souls. “Steadfast love and mercy” [Jer 16:5], measured by one’s fervor of spiritual disposition toward God, is the “fruit of light” [Eph 5:9]: self-effacing, unpretentious acts of observable piety; “so also good deeds are conspicuous; and even when they are not, they cannot remain hidden”. [1 Tim 5:25]      
 

^[1]  Cycle A   /Fourth Sunday of Lent   /1Sam 16:1,6-7,10-13   /Eph 5:8-14   /Jn 9:1-41.   

^[2]  One cannot help but mourn the plight of abused children in whom trust overrides caution before they have an opportunity to learn how to read and use the gifts of shame and guilt for their own protection against predatory persons or forces. 

^[3]  This poetic figure offers us a means by which we may better understand ourselves. Notice how this metaphor parallels the Genesis story. God created light amidst the darkness. God, the source of absolute good, said, Let there be a human creature. Thus, man was brought to existence as the shining centerpiece of the primordial creation. And God acknowledged this to be good. From that time, the Word of God has echoed in the birth of every human being that has ever lived. At the instant of each human being's conception, God says, Let there be a human creature. And he acknowledges that this is good. 

^[4]  Nevertheless, the Lord declares that Israel is faithless to the light of John's kindled lamp, the source of which is himself as eternal Word. Lack of belief assumes an unmistakably cosmic dimension in the Prologue with man's tragic rejection of "...the true light (Jesus Christ) that enlightens every man"  [Jn 1:9]  and the sad acknowledgment that the darkness of unbelief continues to be a reality. The Fourth Gospel begins and ends (assuming that 20:31 is the original close of the text) with a unique emphasis on witness and the act of believing in the Logos made flesh. John is as the ideal, prophetic witness to Christ: he came to testify "...that all might believe through him"  [Jn 1:7], not simply a few or one generation, and that by believing all could be given power to become "...children of God"  [Jn 1:12]  and "...have life in his name".  [Jn 20:31]. 

^[5]  The nine-headed serpent creature of Greek mythology--whenever one head was cut off, two more grew back.  

^[6]  Jesus recalls the Baptist as a "...burning and shining lamp", in whose light the Israelites were content to rejoice for a short while [Jn 5:35]. Though affirming the testimony par excellence of John, Our Lord nevertheless disavows reliance on human witness regarding his own messianic dignity. The reference to lamps recalls the imagery of humankind's darkness in the Prologue  [Jn 1:5,9]. Inasmuch as the illumination of lamps was essential at night in ancient times, they were put away in the daytime: light from a lamp, no matter how functional at night, is absorbed in the brilliance and living light of the risen sun. Jesus reminds the Jews that they had sent a delegation to interrogate the Baptist at Bethany beyond the Jordan. It was obvious they assigned some weight and authority to the Baptizer's message and water baptisms, intuiting that "...he has borne witness to the truth".  [Jn 5:33].