Fourth Sunday of Lent

Dominica IV in Quadragesima A
15 March 2026

 This weekend’s shift to a lighter liturgical color fits well with the prominent scriptural themes of darkness versus light and blindness versus sight. The Gospel passages in late Lent raise themes of recognizing our deeper thirst for meaning and for deeper life, the life of the soul (like the woman of Samaria thirsting at the well last Sunday). There is this Sunday’s theme of darkness to light, meaning the journey of faith from the darkness of godlessness to re-creation in the Lord accomplished principally by faith and baptism. There is an application of blindness versus sight when we recognize the darkness of our ongoing struggle with sin and the need to be washed and renewed by the Lord in confession. And next Sunday’s passage on the raising of Lazarus from the dead gives us the theme of illness versus death, highlighting that even physical, bodily death is temporary when compared to the spiritual illness and death that is eternal. In that passage Jesus reveals himself, and the life he gives, as the very resurrection itself, a life that never ends.

The Scriptures today call each of us to admit our need for purification of our sight.  St. John’s Gospel says about the Word of God, who is Jesus, “The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world…. yet the world knew him not…. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (Jn. 1:9-12).  Will we receive Jesus the Light of the World and see by his light, or will we choose our own light and worldly ways of sight, a secular vision?  That is the question for each of us.  These readings have an application both for our catechumens in OCIA who have not yet been illuminated by baptism and for we the baptized who must constantly purify our sight, battling sin so as to live in the light.  For all of us, growing in faith, being illuminated, and responding to better spiritual vision is evidenced when we, like the man born blind, profess faith in Jesus and worship him.

There is a distinct difference between a person born blind versus a person who could once see but who later becomes blind.  The person who once could see at least has some notions and memories of sight, even if they fade.  But the person born blind has no such concepts.  Imagine if you had never been able to see.  You could touch an object and sense its size, shape, and weight.  But how would you ever have a visual concept for its color and appearance?  You could tell such a person that the grass is green or the sky is blue.  But how would they know what that means?  Our catechumens, that is the unbaptized, have this type of spiritual blindness.  That’s not an insult.  Rather, it’s to say that there is something entirely new and illuminating when one is enlightened by Christ in baptism.  For as much as a person can study and learn about faith (like a blind person trying to learn about how things appear), the unbaptized lack a fundamental sight until they are given the illumination of baptism in Christ Jesus.  The man born blind serves as a model for this transition from darkness to light and blindness to sight.

In the Scriptures darkness is an image for sin.  Being born in darkness, being born blind, serves as an image of Original Sin.  We inherit that darkness from conception.  And so how is the man born blind healed?  It is no coincidence that Jesus restores his sight by using clay from the ground to smear on the man’s eyes, just as in the Book of Genesis God made man from the dust of the earth.  It is impossible to form dust without some moisture, and so we can imagine that some moisture was needed in the Book of Genesis.  In fact, Genesis says so (cf. Gn. 2:6-7).  Likewise in the Gospel passage, Jesus uses the moisture of his own saliva to show that he is doing the very works of God Himself.  To be re-created anew in light and in sight, Jesus tells the man to go and wash in the pool.  The man’s darkness and blindness is removed by this washing, just as by the Lord’s command in baptism water is used to wash away the darkness of Original Sin and personal sins, thus giving the sight of faith.

And what about those of us already baptized and given the sight of faith?  What do these readings show us?  Sin continues to darken our sight and to cause blindness.  We are likely more blind than we admit.  About four to five years ago I got reading glasses for the first time when I admitted that I was less able to focus on the small print in the prayer book that I use multiple times daily.  But since I have used that book since 1992 my mind could recognize the general shape of the words on the page and it was as if I was reading them.  When I used reading glasses for the first time and saw how those shapes came into focus, I was quite honestly shocked at just how much more clear the print was.  Why do I share that?  It’s to say that for as much as we sin, and don’t take action against it, we are like a person who could once see but who is going blind.  Sin diminishes our proper vision and needs to be healed.  Thanks be to God for confession!

In the gospel, people who can see are revealed as actually being blind.  The neighbors of the man born blind say, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?  Some said, ‘It is,’ but others said, ‘No, he just looks like him’.”  They don’t recognize their neighbor?  Blindness.  The Pharisees suffer blindness because they reject God’s action in Jesus since he healed on a Sabbath.  Though they are people of faith, they are so blind that they even say about Jesus, “This man is not from God,” and “We know that this man is a sinner.”  There is a lesson here for all of us whether baptized or soon-to-be-baptized.  Sin blinds us and can find us working against God’s inspirations, even though we may appear religious.  We must seek to constantly purify our vision.  We must seek constantly the love of Jesus.  We must desire transformation of our limited sight.  Like he did with the man born blind, Jesus seeks us out and finds us.  Again, like the man born blind, our faith and spiritual vision is shown to be reaching perfection when we too say, “I do believe, Lord” and we worship him.