topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
The Fourth Sunday in Lent (A)
06 March
05


 

As a kid growing up, one of my neighborhood buddies had a father who made quite an impression on me.  I must say, however, in view of today’s readings which talk about blindness, darkness and light, and judging other people by appearances rather than by God’s standards, it was not a very positive impression...although I always enjoyed talking and visiting with him because he can be quite entertaining.

Having had the opportunity to visit my buddy at his house rather frequently, I oftentimes heard his dad describing people.  He was really excellent at doing imitations.  When he would describe people and imitate them, I’d swear on a stack of bibles that I thought I could identify each person even though I didnt know most of them.  How?  I could identify them by their atonal or nasal voices, their unusual physical characteristics and traits, as well as by their personal shortcomings and failings.

I distinctly recall one of his co-workers, a Jewish man.  In the estimation of my buddy’s father, everything this fellow did was wrong and quite predictably so.  Why?  I quote here: “Because of his whiny voice and Jew nose.”  It’s an awful way to describe a human being, isn’t it?  That’s what I meant when I said “not a very positive impression.”

There was also his mother-in-law.  For a variety of reasons, my buddy’s dad detested this woman.  As he described the mother of his wife, she not only talked too slowly and droningly but she was also lazy, had no gumption, and never put herself out for anyone else.  She was a hypochondriac, “chintzy” (meaning “cheap”), and always expected everybody else to do everything for her.  Not surprisingly, her husband―this fellow’s father-in-law―allowed his wife to wrap him around her little finger.  “Run here, run there.  Do this, do that,” she’d tell the poor…well, let’s just say…fellow.  But, that was because, in the estimation of my buddy’s father, his father-in-law had no…well, let’s just say…backbone.

When we were all in high school, my buddy’s sister had a boyfriend who became the target of her father’s imitations and barbs.  The poor guy was too tall and his chin was too pointy.  He lacked ambition, exhibited horrific table manners, and would never amount to much in life.  Perhaps worst of all, he ate dry pancakes…no syrup…and dipped them into the yolk of a sunny-side-up egg but wouldn’t eat the egg whites.  I knew this guy because all of us kids did practically everything together.  I knew him to be one of the most hard-working, honest, trustworthy, and fun people to pal around with.  He wasn’t into drugs, alcohol, or pornography.  What more could a father want for his teenaged daughter?

Now, more than two decades later, that pointy-chinned, good-for-nothing has been his son-in-law.  He’s made a bundle of money, has a beautiful home and, with his wife, they have three great kids.  Was that God’s revenge?  Maybe.

On a recent visit back home, my buddy’s father told me by chapter and verse how his grandchildren aren’t being brought up right, that they have neither social grace nor manners, and―like their father―they don’t eat right.  My buddys father swears that the mother of his grandchildren (that’s his daughter) malnourished them as kids.  Over the years, all of this has led―not surprisingly―to a rift in the family.  Believe it or not, this fellow hasn’t seen his grandchildren for at least the past nine years and he claims it doesn’t bother him.

If that’s not enough, at that last visit, he also proudly announced―after imitating his grandchildren and complaining about them and their parents―that he’s now an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist.

It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it, that sin has so blinded this fellow that he cannot see the social reality he has created?

But, my homily isn’t about him or his spiritual problem.  It’s actually about any one of us who would judge others by their appearance and behavioral characteristics rather than by using our eyes to see into the substance of their character, as God does.

Think about it.  Isn’t it easier to spot and, then, to make a critical comment about what it is on the surface of a person that we don’t particularly like?  It might be a particular hair style or coloring.  (Purple and green hair, I have to say, does make me wonder about what’s going on with a person.)  It could be clothes, paraphernalia like jewelry, earrings, or―gasp―body piercings.  (I also have to admit, I am not an aficionado of self-mutilation.)  It might be bodily features, socio-economic status, race, religion, or creed.

No matter what it is that catches our attention and that we make a critical comment about, to use our eyes to probe beyond the surface and to survey the true character of a person requires more than subjective standards.  It requires being able to see others as God sees them, as we heard in today’s first reading from the Book of Samuel:

Not as man sees does God see

because man sees appearances

but the Lord looks into the heart.
 

It’s a very difficult thing to see others as God sees them, to pass beyond the superficial, and to judge accurately another person’s character.  Yet, as today’s gospel reminds us, when we judge other people by mere surface appearances and fail to discern their true character, we reveal not their shortcomings and failures but, instead, our own blindness.

It is an insidious and evil thing to judge others based upon superficial appearances because we use our judgments to uphold and to justify and the blind interpretations we make about these persons.  Then, compounding evil matters even further, we allow ourselves another sinful luxury, namely, that of treating those whom we’ve judged as deficient without any trace of love of neighbor.  So, we belittle, demean, taunt, or worse yet, dismiss those people from our lives as unworthy of us and our attention and care.

What is insidious about this evil behavior is that we actually believe we see these people clearly and distinctly.  But, the truth be told, when we do this, it is we who are blind.  And, then, as this evil―our self-chosen blindness―spreads its tentacles around our hearts and sucks any trace of love of God and neighbor from them, we destroy important things like our families, our relationships with our in-laws, children, and even our grandchildren, as well as our workplaces.  We live in total darkness falsely believing that we live in the light of day.  Furthermore, we’re blind to how we’ve invited this evil into our hearts and how we’re now acting upon it in ways that are destroying our own lives, too.  The evidence is ample; but, it is most prominent in the way we blame everyone else for their shortcomings and failures while we remain blind to our own shortcomings and failures.

In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches any one of us who would dare to think that we see clearly and distinctly yet are blinded by all of our self-serving judgments had better think twice.  All of those other people will be saved from their sins long before any one of us will ever be saved from our sins.

Why is this?

Because we’ve closed our hearts and now we are incapable of seeing others as God sees them.

So, what did those in the crowd of people say when Jesus looked into the blind man’s heart, saw what God loved in this man, and healed him of his blindness?  “Some of the Pharisees who where with Jesus heard this and said, ‘Surely, we are not blind, are we?’ ”

And, what was Jesus’ response?  Jesus said, “If you were blind you would have no sin; but now, you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.”

The holy season of Lent―a period lasting forty days and we’re now nearing its end―provides time to allow the light of Jesus’ teaching to heal our blindness.  This healing begins with our own, personal conversion, in particular, as we turn away from the sin of judging other people simply by appearances.

As St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians:

Brothers and sisters:

You were once darkness,

But now you are light in the Lord.

Live as children of light,

For light produces every kind of goodness

and righteousness and truth….
 

As we recognize our own blindness, we can then seek forgiveness.  Healed by the light of Jesus’ teaching, we will then see other people as God sees them.  We will not judge by appearances but look into their hearts with eyes enlightened by love of God and neighbor.

 

 

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