Re-created in the Light

Reflection for 4th Sunday of Lent

1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6; Ephesians 5:8-14; Gospel: John 9:1-41

When was young, I had my hair curled by a permanent.  After that, I had a crew cut.  I loved poetry; then, I read only science fiction.  I hunted and fished.  I forgot that when I found golf.  When I was young, I constantly changed.   Now, I pray and read the bible.  I am a husband, father, and grandfather.  I work too many hours. This is who I am.  Isn't it funny how only time truly allows us the wisdom to know who we become.

This is the tale we see in the readings.   They outline stories of change and how God can re-create us.

The readings in Lent prepare us for the paschal feast.  The OT readings outline salvation history.  The second reading explains that baptism provides for our participation Christian life in the death and resurrection of Christ.  The Gospel readings tell of the great signs in the Gospel of John that reveal the saving event of Christ’s death and resurrection.

In these readings there are several themes.   The two that this reflection focus on are:

• God wants to re-create us; 
• Christ is the light that recreates us. 

The Gospels portray Jesus in many ways. Jesus is the vine, the bread of life, the good shepherd, and the gate.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  But in this Gospel story of the “man born blind,” Jesus announces “I am the light of the world.”  This is the light Paul refers to in his letter to the Ephesians.

Jesus used his spit to make clay and smeared it on the blind man’s eyes. In this Jesus removes the darkness and re-creates the man. Jesus gives himself. The man anointed by Jesus as “I am” becomes an unyielding believing disciple.  This man is so new and recreated that not even banishment can sway him from Jesus.  The “I am” gives light and life and in this our God gives and receives love.

God re-creates those who do his will to a new life.   God chose David to be re-created in a new life from shepherd to king.  Jesus chose the blind man.  By Jesus’ anointing, the blind man is re-created to a new life, from unseeing to believing.  Paul states that it is by baptism, we are re-created to a new life; changing from “darkness” to “children of light.”  Through God’s grace, we can be re-created by the “I am” who is “the light of the world.”  God never ceases to draw us to him. (CCC 27) In this, we can find life and happiness. (CCC 30)

Each of us faces some darkness in our life.  The darkness of sin, of lost faith, of unbelief, a darkness created by the world we live in.  The water baptism washes away the darkness and changes us.  Jesus’ spit and clay removed the darkness and re-created the blind man.  Just like the blind man, we are recreated, Christ will give you light so you do not have to fear the darkness.

God created us by breathing into us the breath of life. Jesus re-created the blind man by giving himself in his spit.  We are re-created by the light of Christ. God's shares himself in our creation and re-creation.  He gave himself totally to us in Jesus' sacrifice.  In baptism we are recreated.   We then receive the Lord, the Light of eternal life through the body and the blood of Christ in the Eucharist. (CCC 1336)