My name is Don, and I’ve been a Catholic priest now for over 50 years. And during that time I keep going back to the same readings over and over again, only to discover that they contain something I never understood was there before. It gives me new enthusiasm and excitement for the message that keeps revealing itself. And I pray that the message that I’m sending you will be valuable. And if you find it so, please share these podcasts with your friends. Thank you.

Good morning. Today we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Lent. The opening prayer. Oh God, who 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 through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. We’re using the readings for Cycle A.

The first reading is from 1st Samuel 16th, chapter 6 through the 7th verse, and 10 through the 13th verse. 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 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 me. 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 Samuel. 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, they’re 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 the young man was brought to him. He was ruddy a youth, handsome to behold and making a 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 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. Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. You 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 the New Testament. From St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 5, 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 the 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 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 passage for this Sunday is taken from St. John, 9th chapter, 1st through the 41st 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 well, I am in the world. I am the light of the world. When he said this, he spat on the ground, made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes. And God said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent. 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, no, he just looks like him. But he said, I am so. They said to him, how are 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 was 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 I now 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 division among them. So he 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 said to him, 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 he was born blind. We do not know how he now sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him.

He’s of age. He can speak for himself. Those parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue. For this reason, his parents said, he’s of age, questioned 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 don’t 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, 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 that man’s disciples. We are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from. The man answered and said to them, this is what’s 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 ever opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything. They answered and said to him, you were born totally in sin and you are trying to teach Us.

And they threw him out. When Jesus heard this, 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 have seen him. The one speaking with you is he. He said, I do believe, Lord.

And he worshiped him. Then 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, surely we’re 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. Foreign I want to begin my reflections on the image in the first reading.

The story is about the role of a prophet and the role of a king in the Old Testament. It’s clear that God did not speak to everyone directly, but only to a few. And the prophets were the people considered to be those who were able to listen directly to God’s direction and God’s guidance. And then there were the kings who were the basic rulers of the people. They were the ones that had power over people. So the history of kings is not exactly successful in terms of being in sync with what the prophets had been given to show them how they should be a leader and what they should do.

And it’s clear that there was this tension between the two because somehow the prophet who was then able to have a direct connection with God, they were mystics in that sense. When they demanded that the powerful kings had to be sure that they were keeping in line with the teaching of the Torah, they resisted. And there’s something about being in a position of power. I think we all know that there’s a kind of inflation that comes into that role. You’re the one with the power, you’re the one with the authority, and you start acting autonomously out of your own needs. And unfortunately, when you go to a kind of unredeemed core of a human being.

Back then, throughout the Old Testament, human beings were basically self centered creatures. They hadn’t evolved very much. But there came a moment in history that this New Testament inaugurated and it changed everything. And so I’m hoping you can see in this story of what it is that made that change possible. And what it is is an action on the part of God, not an action on the part of human beings, but an action on the part of God to decide that all of you all of us are prophets. He said, I will come and speak to each of you in your hearts.

It was talked about in the Old Testament. Jeremiah said that there would be a time coming in the future where God would enter into everyone’s heart. He would write his law there. The things that he wanted people to be that were having to be told to people from an outside authority, they were going to be inside the human being living in his heart. Like we would know what is true, we would know what is right. We wouldn’t have to be taught and told what to do.

We just needed to be awakened to that realization that God then placed in our hearts. It’s the new covenant, the new law described as love. And so if you can see in that Old Testament image of two powers, the authority of the king and the authority of the prophet. Those two live inside of you and me. Our heart is filled with an awareness of what is true and what is real. Who we are, why we’re here, who God is.

But our minds, our minds can act independently of the heart. And when you look at the way the brain works compared to the heart, the heart is based in mercy, compassion, intuition, mystery. But the mind is pretty practical and usually has a drive inside of it to achieve a goal. And it will use the most logical ways of accomplishing that goal. There’ll be the ways of logic. They’ll be whatever works.

If it works, it doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong, then it’s going to be chosen. If the focus is primarily on achieving the goal of the mind, and that’s what Jesus had to come to change, the only control over the mind in the Old Testament, the control the prophets had, in a sense, to anyone who was not following the rules and regulations of the Torah, was punishment. So there it is. If you punish the one who is achieving a goal in the wrong way, they may listen and say, well, I’m not gaining what I hoped I would gain. I’m not getting what I wanted. So the punishment overrides the benefit.

So they find themselves changing. But that never really did much to change who the person is. And so we have in this story, a beautiful story about the way God works in the world today, is that he’s not interested in looking at your sins and judging them and punishing you. Because it didn’t work, it doesn’t work. He had to do something much more mysterious and much greater a gift. Rather than using the fear of punishment as a way to change your behavior, he had to.

He said, no, I will Place in your heart what is true and what is real. The behavior that really produces life for you. I’ll place that in you. You’ll know it in your heart. And the only thing you have to do in order to be in touch with that is allow me to do something for you. Allow me to do something.

What is it? Enlightenment. Let me show you the impact of, of a lie that you might be living out in your waking life, in your head. I will show you that the lie doesn’t produce what it promises. It can’t produce that. So if you’ll let me show you.

Just let me open your eyes. That’s all I want to do. So you can see it for what it is. And there’s resistance to that. It seems the more authority a person feels they have in the way their life goes, the harder it is for them to hear that they are not the one that is making it all happen. They’re not the power source they thought they were.

There’s something so difficult about a person in authority to accept the fact that they’ve been wrong. We see it in our own egos, but we also see it so much in a political leader, in a. A person that has tremendous influence and power in a company. We see it in religious leaders. You know, when you have this authority, you’re given some kind of sense that you’re better than or more important than others, but you get this entitlement comes in. And isn’t it interesting to see that, you know, political systems that are unhealthy, a religious way of treating members in the church that isn’t filled with compassion, but rather with judgment and condemnation.

All those things are so clearly evident in our culture. We look around us, yes, it is really hard for people who have a sense of their own importance and a sense of their privileged place where they can make decisions about things without, without any responsibility to how they affect people, that kind of thing is absolutely there. And you know what? Every time you see it exposed and you see it collapse, there’s a light that comes on. That’s what I think that second reading is saying that every time the thing that is dark and hidden and insidiously damaging to people, once it’s exposed, it becomes a light to everyone. It’s like we all realize what potential is in an ego that is self centered, an institution that works only for itself.

Any kind of position that one takes, when it’s so clear that they have no compassion or empathy. What a horrible thing when you think about it, to live as a human Being in the world to get the things you want without any consideration of. Of how it affects people. We call that a sociopath. You know, it’s interesting to me that there are such creatures in the world and you wonder, what are they there for? Why does God allow people to come in and literally they’ve looked at their brains and they find out, hey, there’s something in this person’s brain that they don’t have any sense of compassion or empathy or any realization of what their choices are doing to people that are deeply harmed by them.

They have no sense of that. And so it just reminds me that if that sense is sometimes not there, it could be there in lesser forms. And that is in people that are just blinded by something. Maybe it’s trauma, maybe it’s something that happened to them. But here’s the key to see, to begin to see. Like that blind man in the story was touched by this God who once he saw, once he saw his blindness.

Once the man realized that it was something that was. Well, it wasn’t necessarily that he so much understood that his blindness was there. He obviously knew he couldn’t see. But so interesting, the reaction of Jesus to that man was to do nothing other than to want him in initially to see and to do something that gained his sight for him. He didn’t look at the man and say, let’s say he didn’t use blindness, but something that was in his control. He wasn’t asking somebody who was in control of changing to change.

He got somebody who wasn’t in control of the situation he was in, and he changed him. That’s the mystery. God does not look at you and say, stop sinning. Wake up. Look at it, do that work and then come back to me. No, he said, just wait.

Just believe a little bit in a little bit. Believe I can change, that I can open your eyes. All you got to do is say, yes, I would like to see. A blind man must want to see. He had that desire. Then the blindness of the mind and the blindness of the will, you know, there’s something in us, it doesn’t want to see because we don’t want to lose the power.

But just as God entered into a blind man who couldn’t fix himself, he’s entering into you and me. And we really don’t on our own have the ability to fix ourselves. All he wants is a yes. Yeah, I see in this area. I think I really am blind. But show me what I don’t see.

Show me and he will show you. And he won’t condemn you for what you reveal to him. He won’t turn against you in any way, shape or form, because his only intention is love and love is light and light is life. Sa A Closing Prayer Father, you reveal your heart in the person of Jesus. Your heart is not filled with judgment or condemnation, but a deep, deep longing to open our eyes so we can see the beauty of the life you’ve created for us and turn away from the things that rob us and rob others of that life. Open us to this gift.

Give us the courage to say yes to your working in us, opening our eyes gently, sometimes not so gently maybe. But the core is that you are the one who saves us. We can’t save ourselves and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. I’d like to remind you that the program you just listened to is available on our website prayer pastoreflectionsinstitute.com as well as on our podcast. Go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast and subscribe to Finding God in Ourselves. It’s free to listen to anywhere, anytime and the music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show.

This ministry also needs your support, so make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website. Thank you so much for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Father Don Fisher, Catholic Priest of the Diocese of Dallas, is a production of the Pastoral reflections institute. Copyright 2022.