OMELIE / Omelie EN

15 mar 2026

15/04/2026 - 4th SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

15/04/2026 - 4th SUNDAY OF LENT - Year A

1st reading 1 Sam 16:1, 4, 6-7, 10-13 from Psalm 22 2nd reading Eph 5:8-14 Gospel Jn 9:1-41

During this Lent, something must also happen in our lives. What change can we expect, or at least desire? The readings help us. The first one tells us about an important event in the life of a prophet. It is Samuel: he knows he is a prophet, and therefore believes he knows what God knows, but instead he realises that he still has much to learn, that he must be humble. When he is sent by God to consecrate the new king for the people, he arrives at the right place, at Jesse's house, but he continues to deceive himself. The sons that Jesse presents to him seem suitable, one after the other, but none of them is the one chosen by God. God has to make Samuel understand that “man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”. The chosen one will be the youngest, David, who was not even presented to him for selection.

This is a truth that we must remember every day: 'The Lord sees the heart'; he does not appreciate the gestures we make, the words we use, the prayers we entrust ourselves to, the beauty of our songs or the goodness of our intentions. The heart is decisive, that is, what moves within us: first of all, trust in God and reliance on him, then humility, then freedom from human opinions, patience and mercy towards all.

Can we have the same vision as God? Yes, the apostle tells us. We realise that we have been blind, in darkness, but with the coming of Jesus and our adherence to him, we can consider ourselves ‘children of light’. It is not our merit that we are now ‘light in the Lord’. We are so thanks to Christ who has enlightened us; however, we are required to make a commitment: “Try to understand what is pleasing to the Lord” and to stay away from what is “shameful even to speak of”.

All this is present in the episode recounted by John in his Gospel. Jesus meets a blind man. He is a man who has been blind since birth. He does not even know what it means to see. He is an image of those who do not know Jesus, the light of the world. He is an image of those who have never seen and received love, and therefore know only wickedness and immorality. What can you think of him?

Jesus' disciples think, and say to him, that his sins must be great, or perhaps even those of his parents. In this way, they reveal their own blindness. They find the cause of that man's infirmity in the past, and so they can judge him.

Is this God's way of seeing? Is this what God finds in the heart of man? This method is used by sinners. Jesus is not a sinner, and therefore his eyes have a different light. He looks to the future, and in the future he sees the mercy of the Father. This man, even if he is a sinner like we all are, now encounters him, Jesus, the light of the world. He encounters him and obeys him: he accepts without complaint his gesture on his eyes, and goes to wash himself with the water of Siloam, as he was told. Now he is no longer blind. That is why for years, for always, he was immersed in darkness, so that the glory of God might be revealed in him through Jesus, and Jesus might be recognised as the light of the world.

But that is not enough. This man must explain what has happened, first to his neighbours and to those who knew him as a beggar, then to the Pharisees, then to the Jews, and finally to his parents. Each time he gives an explanation and recounts what Jesus has done, his desire to know the one who gave him sight grows, and his love for him grows, until he comes to trust him completely, even though he has not yet seen him and knows nothing about his life.

Since Jesus had already been condemned by the Jewish leaders, he too, although healed of his blindness, is cast out. The gift of sight, or rather, recognising Jesus as his saviour, costs him rejection by society, as if he were a leper, as if he were truly a great sinner.

It is all very strange. But it explains what is happening throughout the world. Those who come to the water of baptism no longer have mud on their eyes, they see everything in a new way, they receive great joy and true freedom, yet others, who do not go to wash themselves in obedience to Jesus, consider them unclean, foreign, dangerous, and cast them out of their midst.

He does not complain or wonder. He would do the same if he had not met the one who is now speaking to him. His words are his life. He will offer them to anyone he meets.

Jesus came into the world for this reason, so that “those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind”. Shall we put it another way? Those who are humble will come to see the heart, like the Lord, and those who are proud and believe they do not need to be saved will remain in darkness. This is the change we desire: to become small, rich in the humility of God.