4th Sunday of Lent: the gospel of the mass

Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John*

4th Sunday of Lent, known as Laetare** – Year A

* Jn 9 (brief reading: 1. 6-9, 13-17, 34-38)

** Which means “Rejoice”. This Sunday already invites us to glimpse the joy of the resurrection of Christ at Easter.

At that time, leaving the Temple, Jesus saw on his way a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva; then he applied the mud to the eyes of the blind man, and said to him: “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam” – this name translates: Sent.

So the blind man went and washed; when he came back, he saw. His neighbors, and those who had observed him before – for he was a beggar – then said: Is not this the one who stood there begging?” Some said: “It’s him.” The others said: “Not at all, it’s someone who looks like him.” But he said: “It’s really me.”

They bring him to the Pharisees, the former blind man. Now it was on the Sabbath that Jesus made mud and opened his eyes. In turn, the Pharisees asked him how he could see. He answered them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not of God, because he does not keep the Sabbath rest.” Others said, “How can a sinful man do such signs?” So they were divided.

Then they address the blind man again: “And you, what do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?” He said, “He’s a prophet.” They replied: “You have been entirely in sin since your birth, and you are lecturing us?” And they threw him out.

Jesus learned that they had thrown him out. He found him and said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, Lord, that I should believe in him?” Jesus said to him: “You see him, and it is he who speaks to you.” He said, “I believe, Lord!” And he bowed down before him.

Other readings: 1S 16 (1b. 6-7, 10-13 a); Ps 22 (23); Ep 5 (8-14).

The eternal craftsman

Transforming a blind beggar into a witness to faith in Christ is a very unique skill that Jesus practices. Was it his initial apprenticeship to the carpenter’s trade that taught him to read the veins of the most twisted or gnarled woods so as not to leave anything out?

Difficult for the Pharisees, who spend their time preaching the practice of the Law and demanding its implementation, to understand this craft. They are in the head, where Jesus is in the hands, because it is with the hands and the saliva of those from the earth that he prepares the mud which will recreate the vision of the abandoned man.

The sign was clear, however. It was enough to welcome him for what he said: this is indeed how God gave life to his creatures. And this is what Jesus still demonstrates. Thus, the Sabbath rest is not just a formal prohibition but much more an inner wonder.

The very one that Jesus seeks in hearts. It springs up in the beggar much more quickly than in the Pharisees who judge him. It’s up to us to also learn all the lessons for our own lives.