Bishop Glen John Provost

Bishop of Lake Charles
Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 30, 2014

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

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

Some scholars tell us that this verse from Ephesians is possibly an old Christian hymn from the First Century.  They also say that these hymns are perhaps the oldest writings in the New Testament.  The early Christians sang, and in their songs captured the earliest expressions of Christian faith.  “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:14) could be an ancient baptismal hymn. 

Baptism is an initiation into the faith.  It was not a symbolic act.  It was a genuine encounter with Christ who baptized, as the earliest Fathers of the Church explain to us.  Christ baptized.   In the Holy Land and throughout the Levant we find churches dating back to the very beginnings of the Christian Church.  The baptismal font took the form of a pool, where the adult was immersed and rose being cleansed of sin.  Blinded by sin, now by water, the waters of baptism flowed off and the newly baptized became a new person in Christ.  The font of baptism was also not situated in the front of the church, as became so popular in many of our recently re-designed church buildings.  Preserving a much more fundamental understanding of baptism, the baptismal font was often a separate building not far from the entrance of the church.   The catechumen progressed, made his or her way to the summit of union with Christ which was participation in the Eucharist. 

With this understanding, I think we can see why the Church wishes us to read John 9 on this Sunday of Lent.  It recounts how Jesus gave sight to a blind man.  Jesus makes clay with his saliva, smears it on his eyes, and sends the blind man to wash at the Pool of Siloam (John 9:6-7).  As Jesus points out, the blindness is not a result of personal sin.  Instead, “it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (John 9:3). 

Having washed, sight comes to the blind man.  He then begins a long journey, a trial of sorts.  The neighbors question him.  They reach a dead end because the blind man only knows Jesus’ name (John 9:11). Wanting to get to the bottom of this, they bring the man to the Pharisees for questioning.  The only concern of the Pharisees is that the blind man was cured on the Sabbath (John 9:16).  Even the man’s parents deny knowledge of the cure.  “[T]hey were afraid of the Jews” (John 9:22).  Finally, the Pharisees throw the man out of the room, because he refuses to say that Jesus is a sinner.  The man correctly states, “If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything” (John 9:33).  Indeed, Jesus is from God.  He is the Word of God made flesh (John 1:14). 

Jesus is the water that has washed the man’s eyes.  Now, Jesus looks for him and finds him (John 9:35).  I think this is such a beautiful moment showing Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  Through baptism the blind are brought to faith.  Jesus searches out the seeing.  He stands before the eyes of the believer.  And the believer is invited to an even deeper faith.  Who is the Son of Man?  Jesus stands before us and says, “You have seen him” (John 9:37).  And the believer is compelled to worship Him (John 9:38).

Make no mistake about it.  Baptism is an initiation and it is only a beginning.  As Jesus says, He is a judgment on the world, “so that those who do not see might see, and those who see might become blind” (John 9:39).  In baptism sin is washed away.  The clay that covers our eyes is removed, and we see.  Faith is for everyone, young or old.  The world is called to judgment.  This is why I think infant baptism is such a beautiful expression of Christian faith.  Unlike the parents in the Gospel who deny any knowledge, Christian parents take their child to the font of baptism and say, “Here is our child.  We know this child.  We also know Jesus Christ.  We want our faith in Jesus Christ to be the faith of this child.  We will raise the child in the practice and belief of the faith.   Faith is not an option for us.  We will share what we have received with this child and nurture it throughout the child’s life.  We know Jesus is that important.”

The Gospel of the healing of the blind man is a beautiful lesson in the journey of faith in the life of a Christian.  I invite you to reflect on it throughout this week.  See yourself in the man born blind.  Renew the graces of your baptism.  Imagine the extraordinary gift of sight given to you through faith in Jesus Christ.