The Light of the World - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

0:00 Peace be with you. Friends, we're now at the fourth Sunday of Lent, and this season we're in the A-cycle of readings. That means we got some of the best Gospels that there are. And Lent, you know, is bringing us through the spiritual basic training, so it's really important for us to pay attention to these. And with these marvelous stories, this week the man born blind, next week Lazarus, last week the woman at the well, these great stories from the Gospel of John, were meant to identify with each of these people, with the woman at the well, the man born blind, then with Lazarus. And they're all talking about the dynamics of the spiritual life. So let me just share a few insights from this incomparably rich story that's beguiled Christians up and down the centuries. I want you to know something now right at the beginning. It says, Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. So his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents?

0:58 Listen now to the answer of Jesus. Neither he nor his parents sinned. It is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. Let me just say something brief about this. I think it's so important. Not many days ago, I was watching a replay of the movie Jackie, which is about Jackie Kennedy in the wake of the assassination of her husband. and it's a good kind of heart-aching movie. But she's in dialogue in the course of this movie with an elderly priest played by the great John Hurt, the English actor. And she's suffering, of course. Why did this happen? How could God have possibly allowed this horrible thing to happen to my husband, to me, to our family? And the old priest says, let me share a parable with you. And he tells this story, and he gives that answer of Jesus.

1:55 It's not because of his sin or anyone's sin. It's that the works of God might be made visible through him. You know, we all suffer. Different degrees, I get it, but we all suffer. And we're always looking for the answer. Why, why, why? Why is God allowing this? Let this answer, everybody, sink in. Let it sink in that when you're going through some terrible suffering, that the works of God might be made visible in you. Somehow, God is using this struggle, this difficulty, this pain for his purposes. All right. Now, what do we see as this story unfolds?

2:38 Jesus declares himself the light of the world. One of the great I am statements in John. I've told you that before. The ego eimi. I am the bread of life. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the resurrection. Echoing the I am who I am of the book of Exodus is Jesus asserting his divine identity and authority. In this case, I am the light of the world. Beautiful. He's that by which we see properly. And here's the point. We're dealing with a man born blind. Some people become blind. This man, though, is blind from birth. He's never seen. From the beginning of his life, he's been in the dark. You see what he stands for? Our great tradition has said, original sin. That's all of us. We're all men and women born blind.

3:32 We're born into a dysfunctional world, spiritually speaking. We're like someone born into a household where there's physical abuse or there's sexual abuse or there's drug abuse or something, and everyone is affected by it. Well, that's the human race. We're born into a world that's been infected by cruelty and violence and hatred and everything else. And we breathe it in. We take it in from the time we're born. And it blinds us. It takes us out of the light. Jesus has come. I'm the light of the world. To illumine and heal the blind eyes of all of us born blind in original sin. So identify with this man.

4:21 What does Jesus do when he had said this, I'm the light of the world? It says he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva and smeared the clay on the man's eyes. Now, peculiar, huh? Was he mimicking to some degree the sort of healing practices of the time? You know, maybe. but with Jesus, especially as John tells the story, there's always something richly theological going on. St. Augustine figured it out, I think. The mixing of the saliva with the earth, saliva which comes from the mouth and from the head, and now mixing with the kind of raw earth, with the clay. It's a symbol, Augustine said, of the incarnation of the word of God becoming flesh. God's spirit mixing, as it were, with matter.

5:22 And what does that produce? It produces a salve. Now imagine Jesus taking this mud in his hands like this, and he's got this salve, which he then rubs into the man's eyes. Salve, S-A-L-V-E in English. It's closely related to salus in Latin. solace means health and if you were greeting somebody with the greeting of good health to you what you'd say was salve you know we have that great hymn the salve Regina hail holy queen salve hello good health to you who is Jesus he's the savior listen to that word from the Latin salvator same thing salve salvator He's the healer Par excellence He's come to heal His very being Which is the coming together of divinity and humanity Functions as a healing balm A healing salve It's rubbing Jesus into the man's blind eyes Now, what does it look like for us?

6:43 The sacraments of the church. What are those? Just vague symbols? No, no, no, no. They're the means by which God's grace is communicated to us. Listen, body and soul. We talk about the matter and the form of a sacrament. Think of baptism, the water plus the words. Think of confession, the imposition of hands plus the words. Think of confirmation, the oil plus the words, the matter and the form.

7:20 The sacraments are the prolongation of the very being and presence of Christ, rubbed like a salve into our sin-sick bodies and souls. How do we come to see, we who are blind from birth? you don't come to see through the lights provided by the world. They're more obscuring than illuminating. No, no, we come to see by the light of Christ. We're healed by our contact with him. Think of that now, Catholics. Next time you receive one of the sacraments, think of this mud paste, this salve that Jesus rubs into the man's eyes. That's what the sacraments are doing for us now. So he smeared the clay on his eyes, and then he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam.

8:21 And then John adds, which means sent. So pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, a place of cleansing and bathing. But the fact that it means sent, one of the great descriptions of Jesus especially in John's gospel is the one who's been sent Jesus often refers to the Father as the one who sent me see I've been sent on mission I'm the one who's been sent and so to bathe in the pool of Siloam what is that? that's baptism that's being washed in Christ Again, baptism is not just a vague symbol, but it's the means by which, listen, we are incorporated into Christ. We come to share his relationship with the Father.

9:18 So the salve, the sacraments, the pool of Siloam, you see what's being described here is how all of us, born blind in sin are brought to healing and vision through our immersion in Christ mediated by the sacraments. That's how the church fathers read this great text. Now listen to what happens. So he went and washed and he came back able to see. Now is this a physical healing? Yes. Yes. Jesus healed people physically. Absolutely. They remembered this story, absolutely But when it comes to Jesus Everything is operating at different levels There's a physical level And then there's the richly Symbolic and spiritual level At which this story is operating How do we come to see?

10:15 How do I know where I'm going? Don't follow the false lights of the world No, no Wash in the pool of Siloam have the sacraments smeared into you, if you want. Be immersed in Jesus. There's so many great details in this. So the man, imagine what this is like. Someone who's never seen, now able to see. And so he comes back and he's just overwhelmed. And the people, they don't know what to make of this. is this the one that used to sit and beg? Some said, yeah, it is. Others said, no, just looks like him. I love that detail because, see, when you come to Christ and you're changed by him, you don't look the same. You don't act the same.

11:09 People might look at you and say, is that the same guy? That's the fellow I know? No way. See, of course he's been transformed and transfigured by Christ. But then, listen to what he said. So some say it is, some say he's not. And the man says, ego eimi in the Greek. He said, I am. In other words, at the surface level of the story, he's saying like, yep, yep, it's me. But in John's gospel, we're not going to miss the ego eimi.

11:41 Jesus says, I am, I am, I am. Now why? Because he's the son of God. I am who I am. Well, I know it's extraordinary to say, but when we get grafted onto Christ in baptism and through the sacraments, we share in his life. We become conformed to him. We begin to see with his eyes, to think with his mind, to move as he would move. I am. We become identified with him. Now, I love, especially in John, you watch this a lot, this marvelous thing has just happened. He's born blind, and now he sees. And what's the reaction to the crowd? Well, we're not too happy about this. Who does this guy think he is? And how did this happen? And isn't this the wrong day to be doing it? And aye-yi-yi, I mean, I get it.

12:37 I get it because I know what the fallen world is like. This miracle of grace has happened. But our reaction to it is very negative. negative. It's, how come? How come? Because it's in the interest of blind people to keep other people blind. Does that make sense? See, it's in the interest of blind people and institutions and systems that are created by blind people to keep everybody blind. If you, it's like in Plato's great parable, if you break out of the cave and you start seeing things that other people aren't seeing, they don't like it. They don't like it. Don't be surprised when you come to Christ and he really changes you, and to the point that they don't even recognize you. Don't be surprised. They're going to oppose you. So he has to deal with that, even his poor parents get dragged into it. And they're probably afraid for their lives. The officials are going to be after them and all of that. But how does the story now come to its conclusion?

13:47 The blind man confronts the Lord. Jesus comes to him, you know. Do you believe? Do you believe in the Messiah? Who is he, sir, that I might believe in him? You are seeing him. And with that, the formerly blind man worships the Lord. Doesn't just thank him. Doesn't just admire him. He worships him. There's the goal. As I've said so many times, the problem is always false worship. It's our blindness that leads us to worship in the wrong way. But when we get healed by Christ, we get baptized in the Pool of Siloam, we get the sacraments rubbed into us, we become conformed to I Am. See, when all that happens, then I'll know where I'm going. I'll know what I'm about.

14:40 And I will bow down and worship the one who gave me light and vision. And God bless you.