(Homily for March 10, 2024, using the ‘A’ readings: 1 Samuel 1-13, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14 and John 9:1-41)
The great Renaissance artist Michelangelo sculpted his statute of David from a single block of marble. The statue looks like David as described in the first reading today, “handsome to behold and making a splendid appearance.” There is a good story, even though it’s probably made up, that Michelangelo responded to praise for his work on David, saying something like this: “The statue was already in the block of marble. What I did was to chip away the parts of the marble that were not part of the statue.”
In all of us, there is something unique even more beautiful than the statue of David, and what we’re trying to do in Lent is to chip away the parts of ourselves that aren’t part of that.
One thing we can do is to ask God to shine some light inside us to help us see what belongs and what we ought to be chipping away. One courageous thing we can do in Lent is to take a close and thorough look into our own lives, to shine a light into ourselves to see what’s really there. They have a word for that close and unrelenting look. It’s a word that makes me squirm a little, Scrutiny.
It means taking a close, thorough look. Scrutiny shines a light so that all the details are visible. The flaws are exposed; any phoniness is unmasked; the failures are evident. That’s why I don’t like scrutiny.
But when we have the three scrutinies of the Elect on Sundays in Lent, they welcome the light shining into their hearts. Because this scrutiny is performed not cruelly but lovingly.
I’ve said before, you should try this some time. Like some time in Lent. Like today, because today’s gospel passage shows us Jesus is the light of the world, and Paul’s letter to the Ephesians tells us to live in that light. Jesus enabled a man to see what always was there, but he could not see it before. We want that too.
Let the light shine inside you and show you what is really going on in there.
First, there’s something good, very good. Find it and name it and celebrate it, for you are wonderfully made, and you are good at something. You have worth; you have talent. God put you here to do something, and if you’re doing it, you are finding joy and serving God.
Let the light of Christ shine on anything not so good in us too; anything that is not part of the best version of ourselves. We have stuff in us we should be chipping away at; it holds us back and prevents us from finding the joy God has in store for us, not just in the next life but here, where the Spirit of God fills up the Earth. Today is a good day to pray for the courage to ask Christ to shine that light into us and show us.
Something else about this gospel that bugs me. Jesus performs a major miracle, giving sight to an adult man who was born blind, and had never seen before. Look at the reaction it drew. You would think that people who witnessed something like this, a major healing miracle, would react with awe and gratitude, that it would bring people closer. But instead there is nothing but trouble and division. It reminds me of America in the 21st century. The partisan tribalism is grieving me.
In the gospel story, people are behaving like contemporary Americans: The first thing they want to know – Jesus’s own followers! – is Whom do we blame for this? Who sinned, this man or his parents?
Jesus is having none of that. In effect he says, this is not about sin; this is about me. He can say that in a way that is attractive, and not arrogant. Then he does the healing on a Sabbath, so you just know what’s coming next.
There was division among them.
What is it with people, that they can witness a miracle, and react by bickering and infighting and division? Only the formerly blind guy sees the truth.
Scripture scholars will tell you this story is really about early Christians and how to react to the hostility they faced: Consider the blind man’s parents, who were afraid of getting thrown out of the synagogue.
Imagine getting thrown out of this parish. How many here had parents who were married at either St. Luke or St. Bernardine? Raise your hands: Who was baptized or received First Communion or Confirmation in our parish? Who was married here? Who has brought your own children here for their sacraments? Who’s involved in a ministry, committed to serving the parish in some way? Having that connection, imagine being threatened: If you’re on the wrong side of the controversy, you’re going to be kicked out of the parish and never welcomed back.
That’s how the healed man and his parents felt. The parents knew they were adjacent to a miracle; their son was healed and could see. But they were afraid to say anything that might put them on the wrong side of the dispute and get them kicked out of the synagogue.
Fear ain’t the way. Follow the light of Christ. He will show you what’s really there. He will build up the connections between us, not tear us apart.
21 years ago, right before I was ordained a deacon, they asked us to reflect on our formation, and one of the guys said it wasn’t like they had added much to us during the years of training and preparation; it was more like Michelangelo: the deacon was already in there, and the process had helped us to chip away whatever was not part of the deacon, so the deacon could be ready to be ordained.
You do like deacons, right? I have to remind you that John Baier and I are not getting any younger, and Terry Norton and Lendel Richardson recently retired. If we are going to have deacons here, they aren’t going to be delivered from on high somewhere. Our next deacons are already here, inside the block of marble; they are sitting beside you, and inside you. We need people to pay attention to that inkling, the little voice saying that you may be called to serve as a deacon. We need people like Samuel, looking at all of Jesse’s wonderful sons, to say, "this is the one." But we need more than just one!
The light of Christ enables all of us to see what’s in us. Today we begin Daylight Saving Time, and at the end of the day you’re going to notice more light. Today our Elect, with the help of the second scrutiny, will see into themselves and continue to discover God dwelling in them and in this community. All of us can join them in this effort, and whatever isn’t part of the work of art that God has already created and put in us, we can chip that away, patiently and gradually like a sculptor, revealing God’s beautiful work of art that has always been there inside us, and allow his light to shine forth from that beautiful creation.
Belonging 