The Lord Looks into the Heart

March 22, 2009

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

But the LORD said to Samuel: "Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart." 1 Samuel; 16:7

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered and said, "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him and the one speaking with you is he." He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he worshiped him. Then Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind." John9:35-39

Piety

"Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." Ephesians 5:14

Study

Jesus sees himself as the Way, the Truth and the Light. Our gospel about the man who was born blind calls us to find our light of life in Jesus. He will give sight to our blindness. We are all blind to something in our lives. The darkness of sin in our lives blocks the light of Christ. Looking at the story of the man born blind, we see that his blindness in life was not from sin. God allows us to have problems that obeying Jesus can cure us of. He lights up our road on what to do through the Church and the Scriptures. We each have a destiny in the plan of Christ that will not be realized until we find ourselves in Christ. He truly is the Way and the Truth of our lives.

Christ spits into the dirt and makes mud which he rubs on the eyes of the man born blind even as he tells him to go and wash. Washing the dirt out of our eyes can make it easier to see where we are going in life. We stumble like a blind person by our sinfulness. What obscures our paths in life takes many forms. All the forms of selfishness make it difficult to see beyond our noses. True self love is the love we have for our neighbor. We are too often locked into the prison of our addictions in life. Addictions are traps that keep our focus on what we are getting rather than on what we are giving. The giving of Christ is the Light that shines on our hearts and shows us how to reach beyond the limits of our selfishness.

Action

There is need for an honest look at what Christ is asking of us. We each have a destiny in life that s revealed by our piety and our spiritual reading. The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light in Jesus. Our piety is founded in putting on the mind and the heart of Christ. Looking at what he said during his life opens us to greater clarity on what will make us really happy. Our piety is made up of all the actions we do for the good of each other. The prayer, fasting and good works of our Lent can bring healing. They increase our strength to be able to go against our desires for pleasure at the cost of sin. When we not a slave to our passions, we can be open to all those who base what they are doing on the example of Christ. Jesus is all around us in his creation and in the people who follow the lights of their prayer. They are the transparencies of Christ in our lives. Spiritual intimacy is what is born from sharing Christ with one another. Selflessness is the opening on the reality that we are all created in the image and the likeness of Christ. He does not clone. We each have our own uniqueness in Christ. Together we make up the Mystical Body of Christ. Together we can be His great light to the world.