LONG NIGHT'S JOURNEY INTO DAY

"The Cenacle" (Upper Room) In Christian tradition the room of the Last Supper and the room in which the Holy Spirit alighted upon the 11 apostles after Easter. This is the room on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, where Jesus and his disciples held the Passover feast (Last Supper) before he was taken to be tried. ~~ Photo from the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies.

A message reflecting on the Lenten season

"I only know that I was blind and now I can see"

The early Church leader, St. Augustine, once was confronted by a man who showed him his pagan idol and asked, “Here is my god; where is yours?” Augustine replied, “I cannot show you my God because you have no eyes to see Him.”

In this timely Gospel story, the religious leaders become extremely upset when Jesus restores sight to a blind man. It triggers for them all sorts of questions. How could this possibly have happened to a lowly beggar like this blind man? How could this Jesus perform such a miracle? This man, Jesus, "cannot be from God" because he does not observe all the Sabbath Day Laws! How could such "a sinner perform signs like these?" They even cross-examine the parents of the man born blind to see if they can uncover some trick and expose Jesus as a fraud. 

On-and-on they continue with their questions, acting as though any genuinely miraculous manifestation of God's Grace necessarily must conform to their own preconceived notions. But the man born blind will not be intimidated. "I only know that I was blind and now I can see" (John 9:25). In his simplicity, this uneducated man proved infinitely wiser than they who presumed to be his teachers. The teachers spoke with the authority of textbooks; the man born blind spoke with the authority of religious experience. He sensed the futility of trying to box the event into some category. It was enough for him to know that, by the Grace of God, an amazing thing had happened to him that changed his whole life: "I only know that I was blind, and now I can see."

This is all about allowing Grace to come in on God's terms. God's Grace is not subject to man's rules of reason and precedent and convention. We must allow God's Grace to flow freely through the very depths of our being if we are to break out of the dark limitations of how things are, and into the light of how things ought to be.

The Season of Lent calls us to repentance. Like the loving father in the New Testament story of the "Prodigal Son," God our Father is eager for us to turn around and come home to Him. And all it takes is the turning.

Genuine repentance requires us to trust that God has better things in mind for us than we have in mind for ourselves. Think about it! Do we really have any reason to believe that God wanted us for His children when He created us? Was there any logical necessity for God to "so love the world that He gave His only Son" so that we might have eternal life? Does this season of Lent make any "sense" according to our normal ways of thinking? 

Is it to be expected that God should become man and walk the tortuous trail to Calvary's hill, there to hang battered and bloodied while taking on the full burden of human wickedness? Think about it, yes, but we should not wait to respond until we can make sense of it, rationalize it. Think about it, yes, but also be ready and willing to bow to the Mystery of it -- for the Truth is both simple and beyond understanding.

"I was lost, and now I am found ... I was blind, and now I can see ... I was imprisoned in and now I am free ... My life was going in the wrong direction, and now I have turned ... I have sinned, and now I have repented."

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life," says the Lord. How well do we know the Truth which Jesus has given us? One Christian Educator has written an inspiring, poetic account of how, as a disciple of Christ, he began to answer this question for himself:

There is darkness in the world, deep and threatening; only fools pretend there isn't. Our world is out of focus and fragmented. 

However, like streaks of gold, there is light on the horizon. And little by little, life is becoming what the New Testament says it can become and sings about all the way through -- a long night's journey into day!

In those dark times of our lives, when so many unanswered questions return to haunt us, when we feel the darkness closing in, God, in His immense love for us, sends us Light. In and through the Lord Jesus, He becomes totally accessible to us. 

If you keep My commandments
you will remain in My Love.
I have told you this
so that My joy may be in you,
and your joy may be complete.

This is My commandment:
love one another
as I have loved you (Jn. 15:10-12).

There is a story from the Middle Ages about a young woman who was expelled from heaven and told that if she would bring back the gift that is most valued by God, she would be welcomed back. She brought back drops of blood from a dying patriot. She brought back some coins that a destitute widow had given to the poor. She brought back a remnant of a Bible that had been used for years by an eminent preacher. She brought back some dust from the shoes of a missionary laboring in a remote wasteland. She brought back many similar things but was turned back repeatedly. One day she saw a small boy playing by a fountain. A man rode up on horseback and dismounted to take a drink. The man saw the child and suddenly remembered his boyhood innocence. Then, looking in the fountain and seeing the reflection of his hardened face, he realized what he had done with his life. And tears of repentance welled up in his eyes and began to trickle down his cheeks. The young woman took one of these tears back to heaven and was received with joy and love.

The Season of Lent calls us to repentance. Come on home!