Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com this is the fourth Sunday of Lent and this program is dedicated in memory of Father Rock Keresky, a Cistercian theologian and guide. He inspired many students at the University of Dallas and Cistercian Preparatory School for decades and he was filled with wisdom and he was also someone I turned to when I was chaplain at the university to find a spiritual guide in him.

And I found it. He was a wonderful man. His dedication is offered by an anonymous donor. The opening prayer O God, through your word, reconcile the human race to yourself in a wonderful way. Grant, we pray, that with prompt devotion and eager faith, the Christian people may hasten toward the solemn celebrations to come. O Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen. The first reading is taken from the 16th chapter of 1 Samuel. The Lord said to Samuel, fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I’m sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I’ve chosen my King from among all his sons. As Jesse and his sons came to the sacrifice, Samuel looked at Eliab and thought, surely the Lord’s anointed is here before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him.

Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance. But the Lord looks into the heart in the same way. Jesse presented seven sons before him. But Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen any one of these. Then Samuel asked Jesse, are these all the sons you have? Jesse replied, there is still the youngest who is tending the sheep.

Samuel said to Jesse, send for him. We will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here. Jesse sent and had this young man brought to him. He was ruddy, a young and youthful man, handsome and splendid appearance. The Lord said, there, anoint him, for this is the one. Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed David in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David, the word of the Lord the Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose beside restful waters. He he leads me he refreshes my soul. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. He guides me in right paths for his namesake. Even though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil, for you are at my side with your rod and your staff that give me courage.

The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. He spread the table before me in the sight of my foes. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want.

A reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, 5th, chapter 814 brothers and sisters, you were once in 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. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in fruitless works of darkness. Rather, expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret.

But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. The Word of the Lord the verse before the Gospel I am the light of the world, says the Lord. Whoever follows me will have the light of life. The Gospel is taken from St. John 9:40 first verse as Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.

His disciples asked him, rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither he nor his parents sinned. It is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me. While it is day, night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

When he said this, 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 so. They said to him, how were your eyes opened he replied, the man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, go to Siloam and wash. So I went there and washed and able to see.

And they said to him, where is he? He said, I don’t know. 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 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. Now.

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight. Until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight. They asked them, is this your son who you say was born blind? How does he now see? His parents answered and said, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind. We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes.

Ask him. He’s of age. He can speak for himself. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. And the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from his synagogue. For this reason, his parents said, he is of age.

Question him. So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner. He replied, if he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see. So they said to him, what did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes? He answered them, I, I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too? They ridiculed him and said, you are the man’s disciple. We are the disciples of Moses.

We know that God spoke to Moses. We do not know where this one is from. The man answered and said to them, this is what is so amazing that you do not know where he is from yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. But if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him. It is unheard of that anyone who opened the eyes of a person born Blind.

And if this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything. They answered and said to him, you were born and totally in sin, and you are telling us and trying to teach us. Then they threw him out. When Jesus heard that he had been thrown out, he found him and said, do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered and said, who is he, sir, that I might believe in Him? Jesus said to him, you’ve seen Him.

The one speaking to you is He. He said, I do believe, Lord. And Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind. Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, surely we are not also blind, are we? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you are saying, we see, so your sin remains the Gospel of the Lord.

Take the next few moments as we listen to this music to ponder the images and the thoughts that come to you as you listen to these readings. The opening prayer always sets the tone for this set of readings. And the first two readings are always there to somehow amplify something in the Gospel, because the Gospel is the source of the truth that I long to awaken you to see. In the opening prayer, it’s clear that the role that God reveals Himself to have in your life and in mine is somehow to awaken in us a way of being connected to Him. He wants to reconcile human beings to Himself. He wants a union and communion with us.

And for some reason, his plan was to create us and. And then for us to grow in our humanity ever closer to who we are called, to be more like God. And as we become more like him, there is more opportunity for us and for him to meld into one beautiful way of existence. Humanity filled with divinity. That’s what the goal of the Old Testament was in order to prepare us for that incredible, beautiful connection. So we’re looking at the first story, and it teaches us something really beautiful and simple.

God sees differently than the way human beings see. And we are human. And so our humanity is. In one sense, you would say it’s really a burden because we’re just slow to catch on. We’re slow to understand. We live in illusions, in false truths.

And so it’s clear that we struggle. But what he’s saying is, here’s the thing, and it’s like a prediction of how we will be one day. God sees to the heart of things. He sees the essence of A person, he sees why the world is the way it is. And we’re going to have that one day. And so God in this story simply allows a king to be chosen, King David, by insight given to Samuel.

He’s the one, the unexpected one. He’s the surprise, in a sense. He’s not the oldest, which is normally who would be given some kind of authority and power. He’s not the tallest, he’s short. And yet he’s the one God sees only, but man longs to see. So then we go to the next reading and we see something about the way we are empowered to see.

You know, when God created the world, there was darkness and he created light. But it’s interesting, he didn’t do away with darkness, he created light in darkness. And so the darkness is a part of our life. It is something that when we’re in a place where we can’t figure things out, or when we are just in a place of questioning or wondering or even just doubting. So we are supposed to be able to live in both places in light and darkness. And darkness is where we don’t really do things as well as we should.

We make short sighted decisions that cause us great pain and struggle. But the light is always in the scripture to be equated with the presence of Jesus in the world. And what he is is truth. So Jesus come into the world to reveal to you and to me the truth. And one of the things he longs for the most, it’s the hardest thing he asks us to do. It’s not just to see things as God created them to be.

It’s not to figure out who he is or to unlock the mysteries of these readings. No, his real challenge is for you to know who you are, who you are, and to look deeply into the darkness. And the darkness is what is in us that blocks us from being in union with God. So we have this dynamic set up from the very beginning. I mean, as soon as human beings came into the world and they were given dominion over everything and everything was for them and they would care for everything. And then darkness enters and they are confused and make a bad choice because they believe a lie.

And believing the lie is where we get into trouble. So if you want an image of what is light and what is dark in terms of the scriptures, it is what is a lie and what is the truth. That’s the distinction. And the interesting thing about this wonderful, long but very beautiful Gospel that is reading every Lent and it’s the story of a blindness that is absolutely incapable of seeing light. It’s really terrifying when you think about it, that God has given us such free will that when we’re presented with an absolute, clear reason to believe, we don’t. And why wouldn’t we?

Because it demands something. And what does it demand? We change. We have to become something different. So let’s just try to glean from this gospel passage a message that’s directed to your heart, to your essence, to who you really are. And it’s first about an indication of who God really is.

Jesus is God. Jesus represents God. He gives us an insight into how God thinks and how God works. And it’s so clear that Jesus, in all of his miracles, they’re therapeutic. They’re always helping human beings to be more what they were intended to be by God. And so we’re always seeing the work of God in your life and in my life as a way of evolving deeper and deeper into who we really are.

So we have Jesus in this gospel passage as he did so often, Seeing a need, seeing something. And he would then. I don’t know, there was just this intention in him that was so intense that he would want always to heal what he saw that was broken. So he sees a blind man, and his disciples ask a very obvious question. Because the belief given to those people at the time of Jesus was that every sin that a person committed was being punished in this world by some infirmity or some disease or some bad luck. And so there was always punishment and reward.

That’s all that God was able to do for the people. And most of the people were living punished because their life was less than the life, let’s say, that the Pharisees claimed to have. Because, I mean, they had a life that was beautiful and easy and they had a lot of good things, but their hearts were so far from God. And yet they were able to look at those who didn’t have much and they weren’t interested in helping them. And they were even told not to help them because they were sinners. And they weren’t worthy of anything from God until they fixed themselves through the work of the temple.

Think of that as an image of religion. That’s terrifying. That God would really be the God that some religions claim he is when he does not want to be around those who are longing and needing help, restoration, becoming fully who they are. So what is the truth that God is teaching us in this gospel passage? It is this. The truth is that human beings have the capacity to have absolute proof that God would give to them who they are and why they’re here and show them that he is the one who can change their life and he is willing to do it.

He can do it. And people will still look at that and say, I don’t believe it, because it makes them aware of their darkness. God wants to show you who you really are. And you know, when we see people around us, we see things. We become those things as children. We see people acting the way we think.

That’s the way you should act. So seeing is really important. We have to see things for what they are because we become them. We see God as a judge who isn’t interested in us when we’re not really worthy of his time and attention. That’s the way we are. We become like that.

We do that to other people. But the gift of insight can only be given and received, can only be received, rather than by a heart that’s willing to face things that are not the way they should be. They’re not who they’re supposed to be. They’re faking it. They’re phony. They’re not real, they’re not honest.

That’s our challenge, to face those things, that darkness, and to admit we can’t fix it. But there’s someone in us already that says, I’ll do it for you. Do you believe it? Have you seen it? Because it’s there. Sam Sa Sam Foreign Closing Prayer Father, your call, your heart’s intention is that we become who you created us to be.

That we are gifted with whatever it is that we need. It’s there within us. And it’s our work to uncover it, to support it, to. To live it. And not to live in an illusion that we are not who we are. Bless us with this kind of self awareness.

Give us the gift of who we are so we can better serve you. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. And this program is dedicated in memory of Father Rock Keresky, a Cistercian theologian and guide. He inspired many students at the University of Dallas and Cistercian Preparatory School for decades. And he was filled with wisdom.

And he was also someone I turned to when I was chaplain at the university to find a spiritual guide in him. And I found it. He was a wonderful man. His dedication is offered by an anonymous donor. Many of you enjoyed our reflection series last Lent. And now we’re beginning a new series on Ash Wednesday.

It’s a more contemplative approach. We’ll be doing reflections on the scripture of the day following the Churchill calendar. You can find these reflections on our podcast, Finding God in Our Hearts or on our website, pastorreflectionsinstitute.com the music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner. For this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website, pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support.

Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2023 SAM.