THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Quinquagesima Sunday 2 March 2014

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friend,

Today we are encouraged to consider the blind man by the wayside. This blind man represents all sinful men. Our sins have blinded us to the light of God and to all truth. But, only those who acknowledge or recognize their own blindness will pray for light and sight as the man did in today's Gospel. Jesus' followers had just heard Him tell them about going to Jerusalem to be betrayed, to suffer and to die. They were unable to see or understand this. Their spiritual blindness is paralleled in the physical blindness of this man by the wayside.

We are all sinners and therefore blinded to many things of God. Those who realize this pray to God unceasingly for a remedy. Tragically, the majority appear to think that they see clearly and have no need to pray.

There are others that give way to the remonstrance of the crowd that precedes the coming of Christ. As the people told the blind man to be quiet in his entreaties, so it is that the devils, the world, and our own passions intimate to us that we must cease our prayers. All too often they are successful in getting us to stop praying to God. Once we have ceased praying, then Our Lord continues on His journey passing us by. Christ only stopped when He heard the cries and entreaties of the blind man. In the same way Jesus will only hear our prayers if we persevere in them despite the admonitions and rebukes that we receive from others. God requires of us, that we be insistent in our prayers. The insistence of the blind man's prayer caused Jesus to stop and have the blind man brought to Him. We, too, can imitate this insistence and cause Jesus to stop. He will have us brought near to Himself, just as He had the blind man brought near to Him.

If the blind man had not been insistent, Jesus would have passed by. Let us gain the attention of Jesus this season of Lent with an persistence of prayer. He will stop for us, just as He did for the blind man. Then, let our petition be like the blind man and ask Him that we may see.

He also desires that we know for what we are asking. The blind man was praying, but it was not for money, it was for his sight. Too often our prayers are for the cheap and insignificant things of this world that will soon pass away. This blind man represents to us the man who prays for spiritual goods, rather than worldly ones. We are called upon to imitate him and seek first the things of Heaven. Our prayer this coming season of Lent should be for the spiritual goods, rather than worldly ones. Our prayer must be insistent for the grace of God's light so that we may see spiritual truths and thus be able to walk safely through this minefield of life. Then we may arrive securely at our destination in Heaven.

To see or know the Will of God in our own lives is one of the greatest blessings. There are so many obstacles and pitfalls in our journey through life, that on our own (without the help of God) we are doomed to failure. Seeing is not enough. If we see clearly the path that God has laid out for us, then we must follow that path. This following requires another grace from God. We must see the path, desire to take the path, and receive God's help in following it.

This season of Lent, God is opening our eyes to the necessity of penance. It is a time for us to take a good look at ourselves, and where we are (spiritually speaking). Many have been blind to their own spiritual condition. If we examine ourselves carefully with spiritual eyes, we more often than not find that we are in a very miserable situation. We have a great need to do penance and to amend our lives. Our Holy Mother Church has wondrously provided the opportunity for us to do this penance with the season of Lent.

Now is the time to call out unceasingly to God for mercy. When we have gained His attention through persistence, then let us beg of Him spiritual understanding. As He opens our eyes to reality, let us beg from Him the further grace to pass correctly and safely through all the traps and dangers of this life.

Many times we turn back once we have seen the human impossibility of safely passing through this spiritual minefield. We must follow Jesus to Jerusalem to be betrayed, handed over, and die for the love of God. Too often, we blind ourselves to this necessity. The safe passage demands that we carry a bitter or painful cross. The burden or cross seems too hard, or too heavy so we cower in fear, refusing to go forward. Lent is the time to see the cross of penance set out before us, and to willingly and lovingly embrace it; knowing that with God's help we can carry it and make it safely into eternity.