DOM HENRY WANSBROUGH OSB¹

The second of the three great Johannine readings about water, light and life featured in the baptisms of Easter gives us the splendid account of Jesus bringing light to the blind man in the Temple. It is full of Johannine contrasts and irony. The ‘Jews’ or the Pharisees think they have the light and knowledge, but the more they abuse the man born blind, the clearer their own darkness and ignorance become. The more they try to thrust him away from Jesus, the more they push him into seeking refuge in him. Much of the colouring of the scene comes from the controversies towards the end of the first century, when the Pharisees were the only branch of Judaism to survive after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The New Testament shows that there was bitter opposition between those Jews who accepted the divine claims for Jesus, and those who rejected them. This is especially clear in the fear of the blind man’s parents that they would be excluded from the synagogue if they accepted that Jesus’ grant of sight was a sign of his divine mission. The doughty and pugnacious man born blind has no such hesitation!

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Rev Dr. FRANCIS J MOLONEY SDB²

The story of the man born blind but who is given sight is also the story of a group of people who move from sight to blindness. There was a man who had been born blind. The fact that he was ‘born blind’ means that he has never seen the light. Coming to sight will be his first encounter with the light (Jn 9:1-5). Through contact with Jesus, whose name is found in the very waters of the pool of Siloam, he regains his physical sight (vv. 6-7). That is only the beginning of a longer and more serious story of people who start by suspecting that Jesus might be a miracle worker, but who end by claiming that Jesus is a sinner.

After the brief account of the miracle, where the waters of the pool of Siloam are interpreted as the person of Jesus, ‘the sent one’ (v. 7), the man born blind is subjected to a series of interrogations. However, even though the man is being asked many questions, it is really Jesus who is being tried in his absence. Through one interrogation after another the cured man ‘sees’ more clearly who Jesus is. To his own friends he says: ‘The man called Jesus’ had worked the miracle (vv. 8-12), but at the end of his first interrogation by the Pharisees, he goes further: ‘He is a prophet’ (vv. 13-17).

Abandoned by his parents ‘for fear of the Jews’, he must undergo a further abusive interrogation, but he becomes bolder. He finally teaches his interrogators: ‘If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing’ (vv. 24-34). Jesus re-enters the story to find the one who has come very close to true belief, now cast out of the Synagogue by the Pharisees (v. 34). He presents himself as the Son of Man whom the once blind man can now see and hear: ‘The man said, “Lord, I believe”, and worshipped him’ (vv. 35-38). A journey into the fulness of sight has come to an end. A once blind man prepared to admit there were many things that he could not know or understand (see vv. 12, 25, 36) now sees.

But another journey has been taking place as the blind man came to full sight. At first the Pharisees accept the miracle, but are divided over its divine origins (v. 16). Then, in an attempt to show that there never was a miracle, they call for the evidence of the parents, but the parents will not be drawn into the argument, as they fear the Jews who will drive out of the Synagogue anyone who confesses that Jesus is the Christ (vv. 18-23). Foiled in this the Pharisees resort to abuse, giving total allegiance to Moses, regarding this man, whose origins they do not know, as a sinner (vv. 24-34). A journey away from sight has come to an end. Full of their knowledge and authority (see vv. 24, 29, 31), the custodians of the traditional faith have fallen into blindness.

(Moloney, Francis J. This is the Gospel of the Lord Year A: Reflections on the Gospel Readings (Function). Kindle Edition.)

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RGG

There is clearly a lot happening in this narrative of the Man born Blind in John 9. The texts that captured my attention, apart from the “big” happenings were:

Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you.’ 
The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him.
John 9:35-38

I find once again Jesus seeking out a person in need very moving, and there are a lot of incidents like this in the Gospel accounts. “They had driven him away”, “Jesus heard”, and then Jesus goes and finds him. Do you believe in the Son of man? The reply of the man born blind displays an openness to whatever Jesus can give! Jesus said, “You are looking at him, he is speaking to you”. We come to faith through hearing, not mere sight – Fides Ex Auditu.³ He is speaking to you! I really believe that! And you are looking at Him is powerfully explored by Fr Richard Rohr OFM in his book UNIVERSAL CHRIST⁴. Once again, that powerful text in Mark comes to mind:
Everyone is looking for you! ⁵ And again and again the Scriptures describe how God is looking for us! As Jesus sought out the man who had been driven away. The man born blind responds quickly to the grace of Jesus Christ; he not only “sees” the One speaking to him, but he is also listening to the One speaking. And he believes AND worships Him. The man now sees and hears through grace. He believes, and he worships. Let this be our Easter this year.

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Sensitivity to the other person characterised John⁶ because, in his view, it characterises God. He could say it confidently, even in a culture where religious uniformity was highly prized. To spiritual guides who might want to put people in boxes, he says that ‘God carries each person along a different road, so that you will scarcely find two people following the same route in even half of their journey to God.’

No two people follow the same route, because each person is unique and God is infinitely varied. This flexibility is fundamental to John, even though at times his own systems and schemas may be more obvious.

Matthew, Father Iain. The Impact of God: Soundings from St John of the CrossChapter 3 (Hodder Christian paperbacks) (Function). Kindle Edition.

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1. Commentary available on UNIVERSALIS  ↩︎
2. Moloney, Francis J. This is the Gospel of the Lord Year A: Reflections on the Gospel Readings (Function). Kindle Edition. ↩︎
3. “Fides ex auditu” is the Vulgate Latin rendering of Romans 10:17: “fides ex auditu, auditus autem per verbum Christi” – “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Perplexity AI Report. ↩︎
4. The Universal Christ by Richrd Rohr OFM ↩︎
5. Mark 1:37 ↩︎
6. Referring here to St John of the Cross, a Spanish mystic and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI in 1926, he is often referred to as the “Mystical Doctor.” ↩︎