Theme: From Darkness to Light
A few weeks ago, I visited an elderly parishioner whose eyesight had slowly been fading. One afternoon, he said something that stayed with me. “Father,” he said, “when your eyes grow dim, you begin to see other things more clearly. You begin to see people’s kindness. You see who truly cares. And you begin to see God differently.”
His words come very close to the Gospel we have just heard.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus meets a man who has been blind since birth. Everyone around him is busy asking questions: Who sinned? Who is to blame? But Jesus does something different. He gives the man sight. For the first time in his life, he sees the world.
Yet something even more important happens. As the story unfolds, the man begins to see who Jesus truly is. At first, he calls him “the man called Jesus.” Later he says that Jesus must be a prophet. In the end he recognises him as the Son of Man and worships him. His eyes are opened in more ways than one.
The tragedy of the story is that the people who think they see clearly remain blind. They examine the miracle. They question the man. They argue among themselves. Yet their hearts remain closed.
Saint Paul says in the second reading, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Lent is a time when Christ gently opens our eyes again. He helps us see our lives with honesty, our neighbour with compassion, and God’s presence where we may have overlooked it.
The first reading reminds us that “the Lord looks into the heart.” God sees deeper than appearances. He sees faith, love, and quiet perseverance.
That is why this Sunday is called Laetare Sunday, a Sunday of
encouragement in the middle of Lent. Even when life brings illness,
uncertainty, or struggle, Christ continues to bring light into our lives.
Today we ask the Lord for a simple grace: that he may open our eyes again, so that we may see him more clearly, trust him more deeply, and walk in his light.
Because when Christ opens our eyes, everything begins to look different.
Fr. Charles Ijeoma Egbon