In his Ash Wednesday reflections Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller, C.P., reminds us, Lent is a summons. Summoning us to look at the reality of suffering, disappointment, grief, and our culpability in these. Such a summons begs a response. Our response is to see the suffering and to act on it.
In today’s Gospel, we are offered an opportunity to share not only the heart, mind, and consciousness of the suffering but a reminder that it is the blind who see. By God’s design. By God’s power among us. It is an authority of the suffering which today demands encounter. Not only in this passage but also in our place – wherever that may be at this very moment. In this encounter with Jesus, the man born blind - now can see. His responding again and again to the questions of what Jesus has done for him draws us too into this moment of seeing. Now, we too “see.” We see not out of any worthiness or merit. Simply, out of the pure mercy of God through Christ among us.
What is it we see?
May we incarnate something of God’s gracious concern to others around us. This is our twenty-twenty vision. Now with this vision restored, we can respond to the Lenten summons, saying, I know who I am, and by God’s grace alone, I come to you asking pardon, committed to being compassion, and with all that I am – I am reaching out to grasp the pierced Christ’s hand with, “Lord I believe,” on my lips.