Gospel Reflection For The 10th day of March in the year of Our Lord, 2024
I chose another alternate Gospel reading for today.
Gospel
John 9: 1-41
1 And Jesus passing by, saw a man, who was blind from his birth: 2 And his disciples asked him: Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? 3 Jesus answered: Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him that sent me, whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6 When he had said these things, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay on his eyes, 7 And said to him: Go, wash in the pool of Siloe, which is interpreted, Sent. He went therefore, and washed, and he came seeing. 8 The neighbours therefore, and they who had seen him before that he was a beggar, said: Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said: This is he. 9 But others said: No, but he is like him. But he said: I am he. 10 They said therefore to him: How were thy eyes opened?
11 He answered: That man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me: Go to the pool of Siloe, and wash. And I went, I washed, and I see. 12 And they said to him: Where is he? He saith: I know not. 13 They bring him that had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was the sabbath, when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. 15 Again therefore the Pharisees asked him, how he had received his sight. But he said to them: He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and I see.
16 Some therefore of the Pharisees said: This man is not of God, who keepeth not the sabbath. But others said: How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17 They say therefore to the blind man again: What sayest thou of him that hath opened thy eyes? And he said: He is a prophet. 18 The Jews then did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight, 19 And asked them, saying: Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then doth he now see? 20 His parents answered them, and said: We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
21 But how he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: ask himself: he is of age, let him speak for himself. 22 These things his parents said, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had already agreed among themselves, that if any man should confess him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore did his parents say: He is of age, ask himself. 24 They therefore called the man again that had been blind, and said to him: Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. 25 He said therefore to them: If he be a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.
26 They said then to him: What did he to thee? How did he open thy eyes? 27 He answered them: I have told you already, and you have heard: why would you hear it again? will you also become his disciples? 28 They reviled him therefore, and said: Be thou his disciple; but we are the disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses: but as to this man, we know not from whence he is. 30 The man answered, and said to them: Why, herein is a wonderful thing, that you know not from whence he is, and he hath opened my eyes.
31 Now we know that God doth not hear sinners: but if a man be a server of God, and doth his will, him he heareth. 32 From the beginning of the world it hath not been heard, that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind. 33 Unless this man were of God, he could not do any thing. 34 They answered, and said to him: Thou wast wholly born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out: and when he had found him, he said to him: Dost thou believe in the Son of God?
36 He answered, and said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? 37 And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen him; and it is he that talketh with thee. 38 And he said: I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him. 39 And Jesus said: For judgment I am come into this world; that they who see not, may see; and they who see, may become blind. 40 And some of the Pharisees, who were with him, heard: and they said unto him: Are we also blind?
41 Jesus said to them: If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see. Your sin remaineth.
Today’s Gospel reminds us of the hardest truth about humanity, and the one most of western culture seeks to deny or avoid. It is simply that man has a fallen nature. Due to the sin of our first parents, we are more inclined to choose evil over good. Few people want to admit this. We want to believe that most people are basically good. We want to believe that we are basically good. But, that is not true. We are selfish and we are cruel. We are capable of every evil, no matter how horrific. Beyond that though, we are especially gifted in being able to excuse our every bad action.
Of course, you may say that I am not more inclined to choose evil over good; “I would never hurt anyone, steal, kill, etc.” And, you may be right. But, why is that? Most likely, it is because you were taught morality as a child. You owe your morality to the instruction and training given to you by your parents and/or religious instruction. That morality owes to the Judaeo-Christian tradition in general, but specifically to the instruction given to man by God through revealed religion. Political and secular ideologies claim that man can be good without moral instruction based in religion. Over 200 million deaths caused by communism, socialism and related ideologies, countless millions of abortions and rampant crime in America should be enough to convince anyone that lacking religious instruction, man is definitely not good.
Moreover, all religions are not equal. A devout Muslim may justify the slaughter of Christians and Jews due to the morality taught by some in his religion (certainly not all). Just a few generations ago, human sacrifice was common in many pagan religions. Modern, “progressive” Americans rant about colonization and the Christianization of the Americas, but rarely mention that many of the pagan peoples living here practiced slavery, human sacrifice and even cannibalism. In fact the first native tribe that Columbus encountered sought alliance with him, in hope he would help them capture and destroy a rival tribe, taking them away as slaves. While forced conversion is not moral, and is condemned by Catholicism, there is no denying that Christian morality and rule of law brought greater peace, prosperity and human dignity to pagan lands than the natives of those lands could ever conceive of, much less accomplish. The simple reason is that all religions are not equal. There is one truth and one true religion and that is the religion revealed by God that finds its fulfillment in Christianity through the Catholic Church.
Lacking the true religion, man will always devolve to his base instincts and succumb to his fallen nature… whether a primitive cannibal or warlord, a Nazi, an abortionist, a member of a violent drug gang or someone who votes for a liberal politician whose policies oppose Church teaching, etc.… all who do so sin due to our fallen nature and because they refuse to obey the morality given to us by God through His Church. And, of course, our personal sins even if they are not violent, are still wrong and hurt others and ourselves even if not intentionally. We very easily excuse our bad behavior.
The point of this reflection is not to say, “Look how great we Christians are,” but to acknowledge that Christians are just as capable of turning our back on the truth and embracing our own evil desires as anyone else. But, given the Fullness of the Truth through the Catholic Church, we are held to a much higher standard than those who are either ignorant of the Truth or have been taught false ideologies. This passage makes very clear how God views those who reject the His Truth:
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD’s temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
“Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled.”
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024. may be purchased as a .pdf directly from me using this link https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html or in paperback on Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.