We are currently in the Lenten season approaching the most important time on the Catholic calendar – Easter.  The restrictions for assembling (under 100) makes attending Sunday liturgies challenging. So, I thought I would share a message with you from this Sunday’s gospel. 

The gospel this weekend is a story that many of you will be very familiar with, Jesus healing a blind man on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees had a real problem with this as Jesus, a Jew, was not supposed to perform work on the Sabbath. The Pharisees questioned the Blind Man rigorously, stating that Jesus was a sinner.  The Blind Man couldn’t understand their problem and challenged them

“The man replied, ‘Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing.’

In his homily on this weekend’s gospel Richard Lennon states

“They cannot recognise Jesus or his works of mercy because of their tunnel vision. Jesus doesn’t fit their worldview. Meanwhile the blind beggar, who has sight restored, goes on to gain insight about who Jesus is and the way that God works in the world; he begins to see how shallow and pathetic the Pharisees really are.”

What is our worldview?  Are we looking through the eyes of Jesus?  Are we blind to the needs of others.  What is our Christian and Social Responsibility and are we remembering that in these difficult times or are we self serving and making decisions only for ourselves and our own families and forgetting the elderly and less fortunate?

It’s true that God permits us to live in an imperfect world where we are prone to illness and disability. But that same world gives us the freedom to be creative in the face of adversity, to be compassionate with those who are sick or disabled and free to believe that there is a purpose for each human life. God, the source of all love, does not actively send bad things to us, instead, he is our constant companion in dealing with them; giving us the courage and strength to cope with, and sometimes overcome, them.

If you would like to read Richard Lennon’s full homily please scan the QR code below.  He has a way with words!

God Bless

Kim Hogan