[Pearls Ep 163: Preparing for Sunday.]
This Sunday’s Gospel (included in the postscript) presents Jesus healing the blind man (no Pearls video this week, emails only). And just before the healing Jesus declares He is the Light of the World.
There is deep significance in this following last Sunday’s Gospel message of Living Water – water that flows from Christ.
Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Festival of Tabernacles (aka Festival of Booths) when He says these things. The Festival of Tabernacles was one of the three main festivals for the Jews that required them to make pilgrimage to the Temple.
The key events during the weeklong festival were the morning drawing of water and the evening lighting of the great lamp stands in the main courtyard of the Temple.
Drawing the water was symbolic of God’s provision for His people with a good harvest, as well as remembering how God provided for them during their 40 years in the desert. The lighting of the lampstands was, similarly, a memorial of the Pillar of Fire that led the Israelites through the desert.
Last week we saw how Jesus took the symbolism of water and applied to Himself in a spiritual sense.
Likewise, Jesus takes on Himself the symbolism of light (and the vision that comes with it).
The two go hand in hand.
The Living Water, is Christ’s Spirit that sanctifies us and gives us new spiritual life. And what happens when we receive that? We see things differently – our sight is restored!
We remember living (relatively) worldly lives in our 20’s. But then we had our true conversion to the faith (the first trickles of Living Water). Suddenly we began to see things differently. Things that used to seem important lost their attraction. Things that weren’t even on our radar (“people go to Mass during the week?”) became commonplace. And attachments and wounds that seemed beyond repair began to melt away.
Did it happen overnight? Ha-ha-ha! No (though some things came quickly). And we have still many miles to go… But then again, the blind man in the Gospel doesn’t regain his sight instantly either.
You’ve probably had similar experiences.
What this Gospel reminds us is that if we seem to be stuck in a particular pattern, or are facing a trial that seems insurmountable, we should pray for “new water”, as we saw last week. But we shouldn’t stop there. We should then, with great confidence, start looking around for indications of Jesus pointing us in a new direction.
Lenten blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: John 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38
As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” — which means Sent —. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.
His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is,” but others said, “No, he just looks like him.” He said, “I am.”
They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.” So some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.”
But others said, “How can a sinful man do such signs?” And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, “What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”
They answered and said to him, “You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.
When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered and said, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.