Scripture Reflections for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

“When we know that our own ego is nothing then God can become our everything”

“When we can see another’s fragile humanity and hidden goodness, we can help them to find a voice and become strong and free and let others liberate us too”

“when we live through faith, our lives are then given shape and content, a goal and meaning. To see things fully, as they really are, requires this supernatural gift.”

“Suffering can call us to forgive. It can make us humble and aware of our dependence on the love of God. We can be blinded by our pain, but equally, it can open our eyes to what ought to have been clear all along.”

“Jesus cares about every form of suffering that we go through during our lives. Physical illness, grief, emotional suffering, social isolation, and our spiritual dilemmas as well. There is never a time in our lives that we suffer alone.”

“The call to all of us is to share in his work, by being the light of the world in our time. We have one life span and are asked to make the best of it.”

“As the man born blind received a new capacity, a new way of experiencing the world, so too we receive a new capacity for a deeper way of life, to come to experience the familiar world around us in the unfamiliar light of Jesus, who is forever the Light of the World”

“We have to accept that there are no explanations to some things: that some are born blind, that some are beset with diseases, and that innocents suffer. It is not easy to accept, but it is a mistake to come up with easy explanations. There are no explanations to the inexplicable.”

“We need the light of Jesus’ judgment to penetrate not only the dark judgments we pass on ourselves but those others pass on us as well”

“We can be blind to the 'why' because we have tunnel vision to the 'what.' It is quicker and easier to judge another person's actions than to take the time to consider what is motivating them to behave in that way. Blindness comes in many forms.”

“we just resist healing. We just, we refuse to see it. It's right in front of us but we prefer it to be the way it always was.”

“To hold Jesus Christ as the supreme value of your life is the key to vision, salvation, happiness. To worship someone else or something else that's blindness, that's sickness and deep unhappiness.”

“Jesus is the light by which we see the true nature of things. He's the light that provides vision. He's also the light by which we safely and correctly walk. How to see, how to move, how to act.”

“Sin has weakened the will, yes. It's also clouded the mind. Clouded our vision spiritually. We don't see things as they are.”

“The question for us to ask ourselves today is, “Am I ready for the grace that God wants to give?””

“if we seek out God’s judgement, then we may well find how faulty our own judgements are, on ourselves, as well as on one another. So a judgement from God can liberate us”

“Today's readings and the lives of Rutilio Grande and the martyrs are calling us to see the light of God in the migrants who are suffering. We are not called to hate or fear the stranger, but instead work together for justice and peace.”

“The cured man was brought by love to see not just the natural world, but also to see and share in the world being transformed in Jesus Christ”

“we cannot see as God sees. We are not going to understand certain moments that come by, or things that happen, or sufferings we have...All we can do is pray, and simply desire to follow His will, and trust He knows what He’s doing in our own lives”

“With all the Affiliates we met with in Bolivia and Peru, there was never any pretense, chance of financial gain or manipulation for power or prestige. These were children of the light who saw with their hearts. A bit of darkness and hate had been pushed aside by light and love.”

“Are we ready to respond to God’s turning our world upside down? Change, conversion, is not easy and it is not comfortable. Will we respond in the same way as Mary, as the man born blind from birth or will we respond as the Pharisees?”