{"id":66,"date":"2014-03-27T21:35:12","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T21:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=66"},"modified":"2014-03-27T22:02:58","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T22:02:58","slug":"all-i-know-is-that-i-was-blind-and-now-i-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/all-i-know-is-that-i-was-blind-and-now-i-see\/","title":{"rendered":"“All I know is that I was blind . . . . and now I see”"},"content":{"rendered":"

These were the words of that wonderful little man in the gospel this Sunday. He had been born blind, and from his earliest days lived a life as a beggar. (I remember in my home town a man sitting on a busy corner, a hat and sun-glasses covering his face, selling \u201cBlind Man Pencils\u201d.) Everyone in town knew him.<\/p>\n

You would think it was cause for great joy that this poor man was given sight for the first time in his life. But not for the keepers of religious propriety, \u201cWhoever healed you is not of God, for this was done on the Sabbath. . . this man is a sinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening here? The man is being bullied. He\u2019s being pushed into a theological debate that he is sure to lose. He\u2019s dealing with the experts in the law, and they\u2019re mounting a powerful case against Jesus using the most forceful argument of all . . . it\u2019s against the law to heal on the Sabbath!<\/p>\n

So what does he do? He refuses to be drawn into their academic game and instead, he witnesses to what he knows is the truth. \u201cI don\u2019t know if he is a sinner or not. All I know is, I was blind and now I see.\u201d
\nEver have that kind of bullying? You know, the \u201cprofessors\u201d in the lunch room\/locker room – \u201cOh come on, you don\u2019t have to go to Mass to talk to God. Besides, they\u2019re all hypocrites anyway.\u201d Or, \u201cYou Catholics are such prudes, you love to feel guilty.\u201d Or, \u201cThose people just don\u2019t want to work. It\u2019s in their blood. Why should I have to help them?\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you do? I like the little guy\u2019s lead in. \u201cAll I know is . . .\u201d In other words, he doesn\u2019t get tangled up in someone else\u2019s conclusions. He doesn\u2019t debate them on their carefully prepared arguments. No, he simply states what he knows to be true. He stands to witness for some-thing that is unpopular to the experts, the majority, the current opinion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy, is it? The man is thrown out of the synagogue for telling the unpopular truth. People shun the messenger of inconvenient facts. Deitrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian who died in the Belsen Prison Camp, describes this as \u201cthe cost of discipleship\u201d. It\u2019s part of the program that goes with following Christ. People won\u2019t understand you, will try to shout you down.<\/p>\n

So . . . what is it that you know? We don\u2019t have to look too far. Life delivers lessons everyday.
\nFor example I know:
\n• God helps when we call out to Him.
\n• Kindness is it\u2019s own reward.
\n• Spreading hope is what we\u2019re about, not pointing out failure.
\n• Everyone, everyone, is a Child of God.
\n• Somehow it\u2019s going to all work out (because God has saved us).
\nSo go witness to, \u201call I know is . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

Bless you always.
\nFr. Tim<\/p>\n

<\/hr>\n

Fourth Week of Lent<\/h3>\n

“One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” For the man born blind, knowledge of this clear and sim-ple truth fortifies him against the ridicule of his detrac-tors, emboldens his replies, and leads to his solemn decla-ration, “I do believe, Lord.” Despite the miraculous evi-dence and his compelling response to their arguments however, there are still those who refuse to accept it, be-cause the event doesn’t fit within the bounds of their ex-pectations or traditions.<\/p>\n

We may sometimes find it difficult to see beyond the familiar, but St. Paul says, we too have been brought from darkness into light, which produces goodness and truth.<\/p>\n

Lent is a time for sweeping away what keeps us from the truth, for learning to see more as God sees. Can you recall a moment when you suddenly realized –in an encounter with another person, in the resolution to a problem, or in an unexpected outcome –that God was present and lend-ing you His insight?<\/p>\n

Share the memory with family or friends, hold fast to it, and let it sustain you in times of confusion or doubt.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These were the words of that wonderful little man in the gospel this Sunday. He had been born blind, and from his earliest days lived a life as a beggar. (I remember in my home town a man sitting on a busy corner, a hat and sun-glasses covering his face, selling \u201cBlind Man Pencils\u201d.) Everyone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}