By Father Edmund Power, OSB

Between the Samaritan woman of last Sunday and Lazarus of next, we contemplate today the second of the three symbolic figures of the Lenten and baptismal journey, namely the man born blind. The account in John 9 is, after the Passion itself, the longest continuous narrative in the Gospels.

Given that the whole chapter turns on literal seeing and on its deeper meaning, a transformation from blindness to sight to insight, it is suggestive that the text opens with the apparently simple statement, as He passed by, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. The very first seeing is that of Jesus: the Lord sees and contemplates us before we can ever hope to see Him. And what does He see? A young man: he must be young because his parents are still alive and have to insist that he is old enough to answer for himself. He must have suffered considerably: living on the margins, assumed to be a sinner even by the disciples of Jesus, and dependent on the charity of others. But he is intelligent; he doesn’t seek attention; he is impatient of insincerity; he tells his story with simplicity and precision; he is also a little impulsive. In him, Jesus will break the confining logic of retribution in which suffering must be read as punishment for sin.

The symbolic journey of this young man is a map of the Christian life of conversion. The seemingly disgusting gesture of Jesus, spitting into the dust and applying the mud to the man’s eyes, images the creation itself, when the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground (Gen 2:7). Then the blind man is sent to the (baptismal) waters of Siloam and receives his physical sight. Now the process of his moral and spiritual transformation begins, his growth in courage and essentiality. Recognizing the factual truth of what has happened, he begins to understand a deeper truth that blocks him from tolerating insincerity, procrastination, and arrogant malice: in fact, he is beginning to know at first hand the Truth itself (I am the way, the truth and the life, Jn 14:6).

His growth in courage is notable. He doesn’t hide who he is: I am the man (Jn 9:9). His understanding of Jesus increases: starting from the man called Jesus (Jn 9:11), he moves to proclaiming, He is a prophet (Jn 9:17). And he arrives at the strength to confront the religious authorities, offering a pithy and sarcastic little homily, that infuriates them. The price he pays for his incipient conversion to Jesus is excommunication: they cast him out (Jn 9:34).

The suffering of the moment, however, leads to the definitive encounter with Jesus who asks him, Do you believe in the Son of man? (Jn 9:35). And he replies, Lord, I believe; and he worshipped Him (Jn 9:38).

This courageous and sharp young man is a symbol of every Christian on the baptismal, paschal journey, who, seen first by God, abandons the darkness gaining sight and insight, and illuminated by the Light of the world (Jn 8:12), renders witness and adores.