Call to worship
This is the day of our rejoicing, The halfway point during our Lenten journey. We hear the story of Jesus who healed a man who was blind from birth. In our rejoicing, we reflect on the parts of our lives that need clearer vision and better direction.
- To the point: In making clay from his own saliva and smearing it on the blind man’s eyes, Jesus re-creates the man by transferring something of his own being to the man. The man is anointed by Jesus as “I am” and comes to be a stalwart, believing disciple. Not even the powerful Pharisees can sway him from his testimony to the work of Jesus in him. In baptism we, too, encounter Jesus and become a new creation in him. Are we as stalwart and as believing as the blind man?
- Connecting the Gospel (John 9:1-41) to the first and second readings: By Samuel’s anointing, David is re-created from shepherd to king. By Jesus’ anointing, the blind man is re-created from unseeing to believing. By our baptism, we are re-created from doing “fruitless works of darkness” to being “children of light.”
- Connecting the Gospel to experience: When we are young, we flip-flop about who we are. Only time and experience grant us the wisdom of knowing with sureness who we have grown to become. This sureness enables us to be stalwart in our values and beliefs.
Centering prayers
The Gospel
(John 9: 1-41)
He smeared the clay on his eyes and he said to him,
“Go wash in the Pool of Siloam.”
Jesus, won’t you cleanse our blind eyes? …
Wash away the mud … and move us
from unseeing souls to believers,
from bystanders to disciples, walkers in darkness
to lamps for your light.
O let our souls see!
The First Reading
(1 Samuel 16:ib, 6-7, 10-13a)
Not as man sees does God see.
Mighty God, how they were shocked
when you chose David. He was least of all.
Amaze us again. Pick us. Please say of us,
“they are the ones, the least of all.”
Then, do your work in us.
The Second Reading
(Ephesians 5: 8-14)
But now you are light in the Lord.
Christ, cast your light upon us.
and twinkle upon every sorry place,
every wonderful face,
everyone who might need your grace.
Amen.
Music for reflection