The Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 10, 2013

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         I would find it hard to preach on today’s scriptures without somehow relating them to this moment in which we find ourselves as a Church. And there’s every good reason to do so.  Part of the power of our Scriptures is that they are both timeless and timely. No matter how often we hear them, we’re still able to hear in them something fresh, something new.

          Take the story from the First Book of Samuel about David and how God revealed him as his choice for king.  It’s pretty hard to hear that story without thinking about what’s going on in Rome right now, isn’t it?  And it’s hard to hear about those seven strapping sons of Jesse without thinking about the latest leading candidates for Pope that we keep getting from the media (or on our ‘smart phones.’ Did you know that there’s actually a Conclave ‘app’ available for your ‘smart phone’!).

          In the story from First Samuel, each of those sons of Jesse looked like a likely candidate for king. Each was a standout -- fine in appearance, of lofty stature, making an excellent impression.  And Samuel was impressed: ‘surely this must be the one,’ he thought, as each of the sons was paraded before him.

          But God had other ideas and, faithful prophet that Samuel was, he listened to God and didn’t rely on his own judgment. And God told him to keep looking -- not to judge by appearances, not to be swayed by superficial things like lofty stature or good looks. And so Samuel did keep looking.  And after looking at all seven sons, Samuel asked Jesse if there were any more, and Jesse owned that there was one more: the youngest, the least likely, the one who was out tending the sheep. 

          “Send for him,” Samuel said. And against all odds, this one, David, turned out to be God’s choice for king.

          There’s a certain timeliness to that reading, wouldn’t you agree? It would be a pity if the Cardinal electors didn’t hear it -- and some may not because it is normally read only in parish churches with people preparing for baptism at Easter, so only the ones who celebrate at parish churches in Rome will hear it. But even if they don’t, we can hope that they will be guided by the reading’s wisdom and remember how human it is to judge by appearances and how divine to look into the heart -- the heart of each possible candidate, and the heart of the enormously challenging and complex issues that currently face our Church.

          Then there’s the great gospel story of Jesus’ healing of the man born blind. It’s also timely and full of wisdom for this moment, and it’s also a story where outward appearances deceive, a story where things are not what they seem to be. Logic gets turned on its head in this story: the one who is blind ends up seeing perfectly, and the ones who think they see perfectly end up being ever so blind.

     Jesus’ own disciples are the first to display their blindness when they ask Jesus whose sin was responsible for the man’s blindness -- his own or his parents.  Theirs was an excusable blindness and not at all surprising since it was a common Jewish belief that every human illness and affliction was in some way a punishment for sin. But Jesus offered a more enlightened point of view when he assured them that no one’s sin was involved here  -- that God simply didn’t work that way. God brings people into the light, not the dark!

     And then there are the Pharisees, the respected religious leaders. Because they are steeped in the Law and the Tradition, they see things very clearly, or so they think. But look how blind they turn out to be! Instead of being enlightened by the Law and liberated by it, they are trapped by it and blinded – so trapped, so blinded that they are unable to see Jesus as anything but a sinner. It was all so clear to them: Jesus had to be a sinner because he blatantly broke God’s Law, the sacred Law of the Sabbath that forbade work. How?  Well, he exerted himself when he got down on the ground, made some clay from the dirt by mixing it with his own saliva, and then went about doing the work of healing. Case closed. Sinner!

     And the Pharisees further showed their blindness -- and how trapped they were by law and tradition rather than freed by them -- when they closed their eyes to the possibility that the same God who had worked signs and wonders through Moses could now be working similarly great signs and wonders through Jesus.

     You see how these two readings complement each other and how timely they are. Doesn’t it seem providential that we got them this weekend on the eve of the Papal Conclave when we are praying earnestly for an outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on our leaders -- gifts of wisdom and right judgment, judgment based on God’s way of seeing, not ours, judgment that looks beyond appearances and into the heart?

     And we should also be praying for enlightenment for our leaders, the kind of enlightenment that will free them from being trapped by law or tradition, enlightenment that will take them beyond comfortable but maybe questionable old certainties -- ways of thinking that have served their time and had their day. I’m not talking, of course, about the core teachings of our faith or the unalterable truths of our tradition.  No, I’m talking about what the Second Vatican Council called “reading the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the gospel.” A daunting task because, as we know so well, the times are complex, and challenging, and changing. And reading them involves careful and prayerful listening – listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit and listening, too, to the people, to what the Council called “the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the people of this age.”

     We are familiar with that call of the Vatican Council, but how well are we heeding it as a Church?  Just this past August, shortly before his death, the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the noted Jesuit scripture scholar whom Pope John Paul II appointed Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, gave an interview in which he spoke prophetically of “the Church’s need for conversion…(its need) to recognize its own errors and travel a journey of change.” And he spoke also of “a tired-out Church…a Church fearful instead of courageous…a Church that is 200 years behind the times.”  These words of Cardinal Martini are extraordinarily strong and blunt but, coming as they do from someone who loved the Church deeply and served it faithfully and with great distinction throughout a lifetime, they can only be read as a stirring and loving challenge for this moment.

     My friends, in his encounter with the religious leaders of his time, Jesus tried his best to get them to see old things in new ways. At this pivotal moment in the life and history of our beloved Church, we need to do the same. Let us pray that the Cardinal electors, following the lead of Jesus, will choose the one who can lead us to new places, places of healing and grace, places of transparency and truth!

Come, Holy Spirit!
Come to the Church in our time of need: Heal, cleanse, and renew us.
Be with the Cardinals who will soon gather in Conclave
to elect a new leader for the Church.
Raise up for us a prophetic leader, a humble, compassionate shepherd,
with wisdom to read the signs of the times in the light of the Gospel.
Come, Holy Spirit, with the wind and fire of a new Pentecost.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful,
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
You send forth your Spirit, and they are created,
And you will renew the face of the earth.

     Father Michael G. Ryan