Pastor's Spiritual Reflections

By Fr. Leo Schneider (3/18/2007)

Dear People of Holy Name,

“If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.” (John 9:41)

What Jesus is confronting in today’s gospel is the arrogance of some of the Pharisees. Here Jesus has cured a man born blind and they label him a sinner because he cured on the Sabbath. They cannot accept the clear evidence before them of the healing power of God in Jesus because their religious laws have blinded them.

These Pharisees are more concerned about the law than the work of God. We must remember that it was in enforcing the law that their power was preserved in the community. The poor parents of the blind man disowned their own son’s experience for fear they’d be thrown out of the synagogue. Sad!

The same dynamics are still playing themselves out in our world, our communities, our church and our own hearts. Today’s gospel calls us to recognize our own blindness, so that we may come to see as Christ sees and not as humankind. Constantly judging others keeps us from taking an honest look at ourselves. I believe the best way to overcome our blindness is to ask ourselves if there is a larger picture, or a larger reality or certainty beyond the one we are so convinced of.

Last week it was the outcast, the woman at the well, who brought the Lord into the lives of the community who ridiculed her. Who are the outcasts of our society and our church, whose voices are not being heard and their truth not being accepted by established norms and patterns of today’s thinking? I dare say that mentioning any groups or people puts one in the position of the parents of the blind man in today’s gospel. In suggesting we look at a larger picture, we risk being ridiculed and treated as all prophets were in their own time. Such a siding with the lowly may put us on the ‘outs’ of our community, both civil and religious.

In the past I have been ridiculed for simply inviting members of the Gay and Lesbian community to join us for prayer. My hope was to invite them to know the Lord, the Lord that I know lives in the kindness and warmth of our community. My efforts were interpreted as advancing the homosexual agenda for which I received no small amount of misunderstanding and meanness.

Only honest and loving dialogue, seeking the whole picture with all voices and truths uncovered, can remove any blindness we may have as individuals and as a Church. Today women play a more important role in the church than they used to, but is there more to be said on that subject? What of preparation of young couples for marriage? Are we addressing the spirituality of marriage and the couples individual and corporate prayer life in their preparation to celebrate the sacrament of Holy Matrimony?

LYes, we cover Natural Family Planning, finances and communication, but do we ask couples who the Lord Jesus is for them and how the celebration of the sacrament of marriage will foster and make real their experience of the living God in their lives together? Are we more concerned about the paper work, which is important, or the growing spirituality of couples embarking on one of God’s most powerful ways of communicating with his people in the communion of husband and wife?

Perspective! Looking for the larger picture, challenging our own conceptions and listening with open hearts and not judgment are the only ways to overcome our blindness. Let us ask the Lord this week to rub the clay of his healing into our eyes and the eyes of our world, our community and our church that we may all come to see as Christ sees. Then we will all behold the marvelous presence of God and come to rejoice in the love and unity that are evidence of his presence among us.

May God bless us in our prayer and our work for his Kingdom.

In Christ’s love, Fr. Leo