Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J., blogged during Coronavirus
Presence and Attitude
Ours are sobering days. Physical distance limits social contact and interaction. Concern is personal as well for others. Fear lurks close behind concern, and fear can close doors that caution allows us to open. The door of self-restraint leads us to make better choices about what not to do and what to do.
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In these unprecedented days—unprecedented for us who experience them—are we aware of a Presence close to us, upholding us, working new things in us? These critical times have changed our routines, yet they do not change the goal of Christian living: risen Christ Jesus. Our crisis can help us deepen our friendly union with him: how we recognize Jesus in our present experience; ways Jesus has enlightened us in the past that may help us in our markedly different circumstances; ways Jesus is clearing our inward sight and freeing our hearts.
The encounter the man blind from birth had with Jesus allows me to notice more clearly Jesus’ attitude and St. Paul’s conviction about it: we have his attitude.1 We often think of Jesus’ attitude as expressed in action: gentle self-giving, and that is correct. Jesus’ focused trust on God allowed made his self-giving possible. The man born blind came to enjoy this trust when Jesus gave him sight. Two moments from the encounter: his language and his experience.
The man used the language Jesus spoke, soon to him, before to the woman of Samaria2 and later at Jesus’ arrest and trial3: I am. People of biblical faith had long noted it echoes God’s name God gave Moses: tell the Israelites [enslaved in Egypt] that I AM sent me to you.4 God was clearly concerned for the suffering. In today’s gospel encounter Jesus showed that God’s concern continues. Neighbours were uncertain if the man had been the blind beggar. He replied I am (the man). The man had a presence, a value he had not had before. His attitude had become like that of Jesus.
After neighbours the religious authorities interrogated him; he braved them. The religious authorities had created a climate of fear. They had questioned the man’s parents. They were afraid of the authorities’ publicly known verdict: expulsion from the synagogue…[of] anyone [who] acknowledged Jesus as the Christ. When the authorities interrogated their son their verdict did not intimidate him. He expressed himself matter of factly about who Jesus was: He is a prophet.
When so many must forego eucharist that sustains our baptisms into Christ, we need to draw courageously on Christ really present in other ways: close to us; upholding us; working new things in us; communicating to us via hope, faith and love. Perhaps the absence of being in a gathered faith community that nourishes itself with the eucharist opens us to modes of divine presence we could not know.
In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week,
- Rest in our triune God
- Ask the man blind from birth to present you to Jesus
- Chat with Jesus: praise him for dying and rising for us; thank him for baptizing us with his Spirit to be like him
- Ask Jesus for grace to sense his presence abiding with us in our days empty of their routine
- Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave it to us to grow more like him, alive with his healing Spirit, more trusting in God and filled with hope in everyone’s value.
Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise
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- Philippians 2.5; 1Corinthians 2.16.
- John 4.26, last Sunday’s gospel; followed by: 6.35, 41, 48, 51; 8.12, 24, 28, 42, 58; 10.7, 9, 11, 14; 11.25; 12.32; 13.19; 14.2, 6; 15.1, 5; 17.24; 18.5-6, 8.
- Arrest, 18.5-6, 8; trial, Mark 14.62; Luke 22.70.
- Exodus 3.14.
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Wiki-image Blind man washes in pool at Siloam PD-US; Pool of Siloam PD-Release
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