Brothers and Sisters, Easter has pulling power. It draws us. Many things draw us, pull us here and there. But let’s make sure that Easter is among them. The flowers and the trees respond to the light of spring. Easter is our springtime.
Today, as last week, there are converging journeys. Like last week’s Samaritan woman, today’s blind man lives a story. He makes his way to faith. We don’t know his name. We don’t know anything about him except that he’s blind from birth and a beggar and that his parents are still alive. Jesus sees him, anoints his eyes with soil moistened by Jesus’ own saliva and tells him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. And he does, and for the first time in his life he sees. And then the drama begins. Everyone starts talking about him, messaging and texting as it were. And the beautiful part of the story is how straightforward and honest he is with the people who question him. He sticks to the facts. Who did this? The man called Jesus. What did he do? He put mud on my eyes and I washed and now I can see. And through his interrogation by the Pharisees, he becomes ever clearer and bolder in saying who Jesus is. But this Jesus is a sinner, they say, a sabbath-breaker. No, he’s a prophet; a good man; he comes from God. Here’s another crash course of catechesis, of RCIA. For his honesty he’s excommunicated by the Pharisees. (This can remind us there are people in the world professing their faith at great personal cost. A young man in Pakistan recently, working in a paper mill, was being pressurized by his supervisor to convert to Islam. He refused and was attacked, repeatedly stabbed, by his boss and is now critically ill in hospital in Lahore. His name is Waqas Masih). Back to the blind man: Jesus seeks him out and reveals himself to him as the Son of man. “Who is he?” asks the blind man. “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He says, “Lord, I believe” and he worships him. The story ends in believing and adoring.
Meanwhile – not unconnected, is it? – our catechumens continue their journeys to the Sacrament of Baptism at the Easter Vigil. One name for the Sacrament is Enlightenment. And again we pray for them – their second scrutiny. Again, the prayers bring home to us that becoming a Christian isn’t a video game. It’s serious. It means letting go of false values, being freed from the influences of the powers of darkness, turning to the light.
And then there’s our journey too – as pilgrims of hope. At the end of the 2nd reading, St Paul quotes an early Christian song: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” That’s Baptism for our Elect. It’s Easter for us, a spiritual springtime, rejoicing in forgiveness as St Leo the Great puts it. It’s the moment in the year when we can sense, with our spiritual senses, the radiance of Christ. His voice calls. His love draws. Easter will be here in three weeks. The holy door of confession is always open. Baptism for the catechumens, the second baptism of Reconciliation for us. Who is this Son of man? asks the blind man. And Jesus replies. “You have seen him and he is speaking to you.”
