14 March 2027 · Syro-Malankara Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malabar Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” John 9:25
On the last Sunday before Holy Week the Church reads two healings of the blind. In John, Jesus meets a man blind from birth. The disciples ask whose sin caused it. Jesus answers: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him… As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” He makes mud, anoints the man's eyes, and sends him: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which means Sent).”
The healed man is questioned again and again by the Pharisees. He does not know all the theology, but he knows one thing: “Though I was blind, now I see.” Step by step his sight grows: first “the man called Jesus”, then “a prophet”, then, kneeling before him, “Lord, I believe.” Meanwhile those who claim to see become blind. Jesus says: “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
In Mark, blind Bartimaeus sits by the road at Jericho and cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People tell him to be quiet; he cries out louder. Jesus asks: “What do you want me to do for you?” “My teacher, let me see again.” “Go; your faith has made you well.” And Bartimaeus “followed him on the way”, the way to Jerusalem and the Cross.
Job, after all his suffering, says: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” This is the goal of the Fast: not only to hear about God, but to see him with the eyes of faith. In Baptism, called “enlightenment” by the Fathers, we were washed and given sight. As Holy Week begins, let us ask with Bartimaeus: “Lord, let me see,” and then follow Jesus on the way.
Theme: “I was blind, now I see.”
The Gospel of the man born blind is a journey from darkness to light, from not seeing to believing and worshipping. It is also our story: Baptism is called “illumination”, and Lent prepares us to see Christ more clearly.
“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” Isaiah 35:5
“Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him.”” John 9:3
Apply: Never judge the suffering of others as God's punishment; offer help instead.
“Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil.” 1 Kings 3:9
““Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.” John 9:7
Apply: Renew your baptismal faith: pray the Creed slowly each day this week.
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” Job 42:5
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. … He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.” John 9:25, 38
Apply: Share your simple testimony with someone: what Christ has done for you.
Christ is the light of the world. The real blindness is to refuse to see him.
Let us wash, believe and worship, and walk as children of light toward Easter.
Take-home resolution: Spend fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament this week, asking: “Lord, let me see.”
Dear brothers and sisters, on the last Sunday before Holy Week we hear of two blind men who receive their sight. In John's Gospel a man blind from birth; in Mark's, Bartimaeus, a beggar sitting by the road at Jericho.
Jesus makes clay, anoints the blind man's eyes and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam, which means “Sent”. He comes back seeing. Then come the questions, the arguments, the threats. He does not know how to answer the scholars, but he knows one thing: “I was blind; now I see.” And his faith grows until he kneels and says: “Lord, I believe.” Meanwhile those who are sure they see refuse the light.
Bartimaeus cannot see, but he can shout. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” People tell him to be quiet. He shouts louder. Jesus stops and asks: “What do you want me to do for you?” “Teacher, let me see again.” He receives his sight and follows Jesus on the road, the road to Jerusalem.
Next Sunday is Hosanna. Holy Week begins. Let us ask Jesus to heal our blindness: to the poor beside us, to our own sins, to God's love. Let us pray Bartimaeus' prayer all through this week. And having received our sight, let us follow Jesus on the way, to his Cross and his Resurrection. Amen.
Children, close your eyes for a moment. Now open them! It's wonderful to see, isn't it? Bartimaeus was blind. He heard Jesus was passing and shouted: “Jesus, help me!”
People said, “Be quiet!” But he shouted even louder. Jesus asked: “What do you want?” “I want to see!” And Jesus gave him his sight!
Next week we will wave palms for Jesus. Let's say: “Jesus, open my eyes to see you!”
Lord Jesus, light of the world, you opened the eyes of the man born blind and of Bartimaeus. Have mercy on us: heal our blindness, let us see you with the eyes of faith, and give us grace to follow you on the way to Jerusalem, to your Cross and your Resurrection. Amen.
Samio means the blind man, and on this Sunday, the last before Hosanna Sunday, the Fast asks the plainest of questions: can you see? The evening Gospel gives us blind Bartimaeus at Jericho, who cries out, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” and then follows Jesus on the way (Mark 10:46–52). The Old Testament lessons surround the theme. Deuteronomy asks for “a full and honest weight” (25:15). Solomon asks for “an understanding mind” (1 Kings 3:9). Jeremiah sings of the God “who made the earth by his power” (51:15). The Catholic Epistle tells Christians to rejoice “insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings” (1 Peter 4:13).
We study three readings that belong together. Job, after all his arguing, says that he had only heard of God and now his eye sees him. Paul tells the Romans that those who think they see clearly must not despise a brother or sister who sees differently. In John a man blind from birth comes step by step to worship Jesus, while those sure of their own sight grow more and more blind. The key words are sight, judgment and light.
Setting.
The Book of Job is a great poem on the suffering of the innocent. Its date and author are uncertain. Job's friends hold firmly that suffering must be punishment, and that Job must have sinned. Job insists that he has not, and he demands an answer from God. God finally speaks from the whirlwind (chapters 38–41). He does not explain Job's pain. He shows Job the wonders of creation and asks who he is to judge them.
Here we have Job's last words and God's verdict. The verdict is a surprise: God is angry with the friends who defended him with such neat answers, and he praises the man who argued with him.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” (42:3)
Job is humbled and not crushed. God has not given him an answer, but he has given himself, and that turns out to be enough.
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (42:5)
This is the verse of the day. The difference is between second-hand religion and meeting God. Job is no less in pain, and his children have not been restored to him yet. What has changed is that God is no longer only a subject of discussion.
“you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (42:7)
God prefers honest protest in prayer to tidy theology about him. The disciples of John 9:2 will ask the friends' question again: “who sinned?”
“and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.” (42:9)
The friends must go to the man they accused and ask him to pray for them. The sufferer becomes the intercessor.
How the Church reads it.
St James names Job as a model of endurance and says that “the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (James 5:11). St Gregory the Great, in his long Moralia on Job, reads Job also as a figure of Christ and of the Church (in substance). The Catechism admits that the experience of evil and suffering can shake our faith and become a temptation (CCC 164), and that no quick answer will do: the question of evil is answered only by the Christian faith as a whole (CCC 309). The fullest answer to Job's cry is the innocent Sufferer on the Cross.
Setting.
Near the end of Romans (14:1–15:13) Paul turns to a quarrel in the Roman community. Some in the Church ate no meat, drank no wine, and kept certain days. Others felt no such duty. Many scholars think that the careful ones were mostly Christians who kept Jewish food customs or feared meat from pagan sacrifices, but Paul does not say. He calls them “the weak”, and he counts himself among “the strong” (15:1). And then he aims his warning chiefly at the strong.
Paul is speaking of matters that were then open questions among believers. He is not saying that the moral law is a matter of opinion: in 1:18–32 and in chapters 12–13 he is very clear about right and wrong.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister?” (14:10)
The first question is for the careful one, who judges. The second is for the bold one, who despises. Each has a sin proper to his own position.
“Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of one for whom Christ died.” (14:15)
This is the great argument. Before you claim your right, look at what the other person cost.
“For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (14:17)
Said in the Great Fast, this keeps fasting in its place. A fast that makes me harsh toward others has missed the kingdom it was meant to serve.
“for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (14:23)
Paul means that acting against one's own conscience is sin. He does not teach that everything done by those outside the faith is sin; the Church has rejected that view.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this chapter on conscience: charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's neighbour and his conscience, and it is right not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble (CCC 1789). It uses v. 17 to speak of the kingdom in the Lord's Prayer (CCC 2819). It also keeps the needed distinction: we can judge that an act is gravely wrong, but we must entrust the judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God (CCC 1861).
Setting.
John 7–8 is set at the Feast of Tabernacles, where Jesus has said, “I am the light of the world” (8:12). Chapter 9 shows that word in action. It is a carefully built drama. Jesus is absent from the middle of it, and the man who has been healed stands alone before his questioners.
Background. Jewish sources describe water being drawn from Siloam during Tabernacles and great lamps being lit in the Temple court. A stepped pool uncovered in Jerusalem in 2004 is widely identified as the pool of Jesus' time. Later Jewish law counts kneading among the labours forbidden on the sabbath, and the making of mud may have been seen in that way. That was a serious religious question for those who loved the sabbath.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (9:2)
This is the question of Job's friends. Jesus does not take it up, and he turns from blame to what God will do.
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” (9:3)
Jesus is not saying why every suffering exists, and the text does not picture God blinding a child for display. He says that this man's blindness is not a punishment, and that God is about to act in it.
“he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes” (9:6)
The verb is epichriō, to spread on or anoint. In that time saliva was often thought to have healing power. The Fathers saw more: the hands that shaped Adam are shaping eyes.
“Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (9:7)
He has to walk there blind, with mud on his face, trusting a word. Only then does he see. The Sent One sends him to the pool called Sent.
“His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews” (9:22)
Here “the Jews” means the religious authorities at that moment. The parents, the man, the disciples and Jesus himself are all Jews, and it is plainly not a people who are meant. The fear of the parents is a fear that many have known before those with power.
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” (9:25)
He does not know the theology and he refuses to pretend. A plain witness to what God has done is hard to argue with. The poor man teaches his teachers in vv. 30–33.
“Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”” (9:35)
The Lord goes looking for the man who has lost everything for him. He healed him once at the start, and now he comes back to him for the deeper healing.
“He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.” (9:38)
Here is the true end of the miracle. The man's eyes had been opened at v. 7; now he sees.
“But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.” (9:41)
There is hope for one who says “I am blind”. The danger is to be sure that I do not need healing. This word is for all of us who know our religion well.
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism notes that Jesus used signs to heal, among them “mud and washing” (CCC 1504). It says that Baptism is called enlightenment, because those who receive it are enlightened in their understanding (CCC 1216). It also records that the religious authorities were not of one mind, and that some believed in Jesus (CCC 595–596). St Irenaeus says that the mud shows the hand of the Creator who first fashioned us (in substance). St Augustine, in his Tractates on John (44), sees the blind man as the human race, the mud as the Word made flesh, and the washing as Baptism (in substance). St Ephrem, too, in his commentary on the Diatessaron, sees the Creator's hand at work in the clay (in substance).
Does God make people suffer in order to show his glory?
No. God does not delight in suffering, and he is not its author in that sense. The Gospel says only that this man's blindness was not a punishment and that God worked in it. The Church's answer to suffering is the whole of the faith, and above all the Cross, where God enters into it (CCC 309).
The man says, “God does not listen to sinners” (9:31). Is that true?
It is the man's own argument, from what his hearers already accept, and it has real force in the scene. It is not the Lord's teaching on prayer. The tax collector prays, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” and he goes home justified (Luke 18:13–14). God hears the repentant sinner.
Does this chapter blame the Jews?
No. Jesus, his disciples, the blind man and his parents were all Jews, and some of the Pharisees defended Jesus in this very chapter (9:16). The Church firmly teaches that the Jewish people as such are not to be blamed for what happened in the Passion (Nostra Aetate 4; CCC 597). The warning of v. 41 is addressed to anyone sure of his own sight, and first of all to those of us who are in the Church.
Samio is the Syriac word for the blind man. With this Sunday our journey through the healing Sundays of the Great Fast is almost done: next Saturday is the Saturday of Lazarus and next Sunday is Hosanna. In our tradition Baptism is the washing and the light, and this Gospel is a catechism of Baptism. The cry of Bartimaeus is still in our mouths at every Holy Qurbono as we say Kurielaison. As Holy Week comes near, we may ask the Lord to anoint our eyes again. Before the mysteries of Holy Week, Confession is our walk to Siloam: a walk with mud on our face, on the strength of a word, and we return able to see.