4th Sunday of Lent - Preface
This week we Lectio the Liturgy, with the Preface for the 4th Sunday of Lent. The Preface is the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer. During the Sundays of Lent, the Prefaces are specific to that week’s Gospel. The Gospel for this week is from John 9:1-41. Jesus heals the man born blind.
It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.
By the mystery of the Incarnation, he has led the human race that walked in darkness into the radiance of the faith and has brought those born in slavery to ancient sin through the waters of regeneration to make them your adopted children.
As I meditated on this prayer, during the night since I was awake anyway because the neighbor’s dog was barking, I put not only myself, but all of mankind, in the scripture in place of the blind man. Wait until you see what happened. <br> Jesus' disciples assumed that the man was born blind due to someone’s sin. Jesus tells them that the man is blind so the works of God might be made visible through him.
The human race has been blind from the beginning, since the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Just like the man, mankind has lived in darkness. While the feasts, symbols, and even the sacrifices in the Old Testament point to the One who was to come, the people still lived in separation from God.
This is where both, the human race and the blind man, meet Jesus. In the fullness of time, the world experiences the Incarnation, God becomes man. Light comes into the world. The works of God become visible.
Jesus tells the man to go wash in the Pool of Siloam, which means Sent. He went and came back able to see.
In the Latin form of the prayer, we are washed in a “lavacrum regenerationis” a bath of being born again, regeneration. When we come out of this bath of Baptism, we are brought out of darkness into light and we are sent to share this light with others.
The man is no longer the man he was before, his neighbors didn’t recognize him. Some folks asked, “Isn't he the one who used to sit and beg?” Others replied, ”No, he just looks like him.”
Then the man begins his testimony. He tells the people that the man put clay on his eyes, he washed and now he can see. When the Pharisees questioned him for the second time, he responds, “Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?” (I like to think that the man responds to the Pharisees in a hopeful tone.) He goes on to tell them that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does His will, He listens to him.
Jesus said that the works of God would be made visible through the blind man. Blind in sight or blind because of sin, when we are washed, God’s power is made manifest. Let’s make the blind man’s testimony our testimony: "I was in darkness, but God brought me into the freedom of the light. Do you want to be his disciple, too? If you are sincere and do his will, he listens and gives us the greatest gift of all, he makes us his adopted children."
Our “being sent” isn’t over yet. Every time we gather to pray the Mass, we are sent. The Mass, or in Latin, ’Ite missa es,’ means “to send out.” Jesus Christ sent the blind man to the pool to regain his sight and we, like his disciples are sent out to the world to make his works known.
Thanks for praying with me,
Julie