Freed from Our Blindness — Silvio José Báez, ocd

Dear brothers and sisters,

In today’s Gospel (Jn 9:1–41), Jesus heals a man who had been blind from birth, someone who had lived his entire life immersed in darkness. He heals him by placing mud on his eyes, making a gesture that recalls what God did when he created the human being, shaping him from the dust of the earth (Gen 2:7). The healing of this blind man is like a new creation. In Latin American culture, childbirth—the birth of a child—is called dar a luz, “to bring into the light.” In that sense, Jesus brought this blind man into the light. He caused him to be born again; he restored his human dignity. Now he will be able to see clearly. He will no longer stumble. He will know how to discern. He will live in freedom. By giving him sight, Jesus has created a new man.

The blind man who passes from darkness to light represents every believer who, throughout life, grows and matures in his knowledge of Jesus. At first, the blind man sees Jesus simply as a man. When the neighbors ask him how his eyes were opened, he answers that “the man called Jesus” put mud on his eyes and healed him. When the Pharisees question him and ask what he says about the one who opened his eyes, he replies: “He is a prophet” (v. 17). A little later, when the Pharisees insist that Jesus is a sinner and cannot come from God because he healed on the Sabbath, the man who had been blind answers: “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (v. 33). Finally, after being expelled from the synagogue, he meets Jesus again. Jesus asks him whether he believes in the Son of Man. Then the healed blind man prostrates himself before him, in an act of worship proper to the believer, and says: “I believe, Lord” (v. 38).

While the blind man keeps moving toward the light, toward an ever deeper knowledge of Jesus, the others gradually become blind because of their arrogance, their mental rigidity, and their religious fanaticism. The neighbors of the healed man represent the indifferent people who always keep their distance, who believe that real change is impossible, and who prefer a world in which everything remains the same. The parents of the blind man represent the fearful people who remain silent about the truth out of fear of reprisals and bargain away their conscience and their voice to avoid the consequences.

Finally, there are the Pharisees, who think they know everything, doubt nothing, and impose their own truth. They live obsessed with the observance of the Sabbath rest, yet they are incapable of seeing a man who has been healed. The Pharisees represent a religion that takes no interest in the good of the human person and knows only how to speak about itself and for itself. What good is a religion that exists only to defend its truths, celebrate its rituals, and impose its doctrine? What kind of religion is one that pays no attention to reality and is insensitive to the suffering of people, that does not stand on the side of the weak and does not commit itself to the struggle against darkness?

Even today there are forms of blindness that dehumanize life.

The blind are those who expect different results while always doing the same thing.

• Those who look upon the suffering of others as one watches the rain fall from behind a windowpane.
• Those who think money can make people happy.
• Those who believe that love is only a passing feeling rather than a free decision that always seeks the good of the other.
• Those who live as though tomorrow did not exist and the future held no memory.

The blind are those who believe that peace can be built through violence or that violating the rights of others makes them powerful.

• Those who remain silent in the face of injustice, imagining that they will never be its victims and believing that their silence will protect them from tyrants.
• Those who naively believe that certain people or political systems are eternal and will never pass away, and who therefore render them homage, giving them their hearts and their consciences.

The Gospel account we have heard today invites us to open our hearts to the Gospel so that we may be freed from our blindness. All of us are like those born blind, unable to see the mystery of existence. Only the light of Jesus can illuminate our hearts and open our eyes so that we may see the truth about life, about ourselves, and about God. Then we become believers like the man healed in today’s Gospel, who represents the believer enlightened by Jesus. He is a new man. In fact, people no longer recognize him. “Isn’t this the man?” some say. “No, it can’t be him,” say others. When we encounter the Lord, we are the same—and yet we are no longer the same. One encounters the Lord and is changed within. Windows of light are opened.

Believing doesn’t mean closing our eyes. It doesn’t mean renouncing reason or the capacity to think. It doesn’t mean turning our gaze away from the world. Rather, believing means looking at life in a particular way. Believing means seeing the world with the eyes of Jesus through the light of the Gospel. Today the Pope said that we need a faith that is awake, attentive, and prophetic (Angelus, 3/15/2026). When we see the world as Jesus saw it, everything looks different. We acquire wakeful eyes that do not ignore the dramatic situations of injustice and violence that make humanity bleed. We look with attentive eyes at the needs of our brothers and sisters, responding with charity and with our commitment to peace, justice, and solidarity. We also see the world with prophetic eyes, denouncing injustices that attack human dignity.

Faith also gives us serene eyes that fill us with hope and humble eyes that help us accept ourselves with our lights and our shadows. We know that we are in the hands of God, who sustains and guides us. Believers are like that. Even though we don’t understand everything, we face life with confidence because we know that we live in the loving hands of our Father God. At times we may even doubt and experience the limits of human reason, but we don’t despair. We know that we weren’t created to live in darkness or to walk alone. Sustained by the love of Jesus and illuminated by his light, we feel secure—without fear, with hope, without narrow-mindedness or fruitless nostalgia for the past. We continue walking toward a brighter light, but also a more humble one.

May Jesus, the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12), illuminate our lives. Let’s not live in deception. Let’s not reject the truth. Let’s not close ourselves within our own ideas. Let’s not resign ourselves to darkness. Let’s not turn our gaze away from the world or from the suffering of our brothers and sisters.

Today we’ve heard Jesus say: “I came so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (Jn 9:39). That’s what happens. When we close ourselves in our lies and in our pride, we become blind. When we humbly acknowledge our blindness and welcome the light of the Gospel, we begin to see the truth and to live with joy and hope.

Silvio José Báez, o.c.d.

Auxiliary Bishop of Managua
Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, 15 March 2026

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos, Greek, 1541–1614), The Healing of the Man Born Blind, oil on panel, c. 1570–1575. It comes from the collections of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

Who Is to Blame? [Sermon]

Mary and I like to watch YouTube videos.

One YouTube channel is Doctor Glaucomflecken.

He creates funny videos about hospitals, doctors, specialties, insurance, and healthcare in general. I particularly enjoy the rivalry between the nephrologist – a kidney doctor – and the cardiologist – a heart doctor.

Doctor Glaucomflecken is, in reality, Will Flannery, an practicing ophthalmologist in Seattle Washington. He also has a series called “GlaucTalk” where he and his wife talk about eye issues, among other topics.

Let’s go to God in prayer.

God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.

Amen.

Samuel is sent to find a new king among Jesse’s sons. He sees seven of Jesse’s sons. And God says no to them all. And finally he gets Jesse to send for the youngest son, David, whom God tells Jesse to anoint.

“for the LORD does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7b, NRSVue

People are complex systems. The human body has around 30 to 40 trillion cells. That’s a 3 or 4 with thirteen zeroes after it:

30,000,000,000,000

30 trillion seconds is over 950 thousand years.

That’s a very big number, but there are at last as many bacterial cells in and on our bodies, many of which are essential to our survival. They help digest our food. They help protect our skin.

When systems have that many parts, there are going to be differences in how each system works.

The actual number of functional genes in the human body are about 20,000. That may not seem like a lot, but if every gene was simply “yes” or “no,” that would create a number of combinations for which we do not even have a name.

It’s around 4 with 6,020 zeroes after it.

And many genes have more than just two possibilities.

And then there are the environmental factors: what’s going on with mom while the fetus is growing? What does the baby experience after being born: food, sleep, sounds, sights, smells?

So while we often look for a single cause for why one person is different from another, it’s likely a mix of a lot of factors. Even when it is a single factor, it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Before we knew about genes, before we knew about cells and bacteria, before we knew much about environmental factors, we often thought that difficulties were divine punishment.

If the rains wouldn’t come, we must not have pleased God. If the rains came and flooded everything, we must have made God angry. If someone got sick, they must have sinned.

And if a person was born with a disability, maybe it was the parents who sinned.

So in our Gospel reading, we have a man who was born blind. His disciples asked him,

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

John 9:2, NRSVue

This man was born with a disability, and the only thing the disciples can think of is “who is to blame?” And as Doctor Glaucomflecken could tell you, there are many, many causes of blindness.

So Jesus breaks the system by telling the disciples

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, NRSVue

Then Jesus spits on the ground, and spreads the resulting mud on the man’s eyes.

Dr. Glaucomflecken would not recommend this treatment.

But Jesus tells the man to wash in the pool of Siloam, and the man’s sight returns.

It’s valuable to know what causes disability, because when we know, we can try to avoid the causes. Some of us will, some of us won’t, must of us will avoid some things.

But when it comes to treatment, we don’t try to assess blame to determine whether to help.

You may have seen a recent episode of The PITT what deals with this, where someone who was very large was receiving some negative attitude before it was revealed that his weight was due, in large part, to other issues he had experienced.

When someone is suffering, the first question is not “how did the suffering happen?”

The first question is “how can I help?”

After Jesus heals the man, the neighbors want to know what’s going on. And instead of loving their neighbor, they bring him to the religious leaders. And instead of rejoicing, the religious leaders interrogate him, and are concerned that work had been done on the Sabbath. Somehow, giving sight to a man who was born blind is less important than observing the Sabbath.

I have known observant Jews who would not place the Sabbath above the care and well-being of people.

So first we have a question of why the man is blind, and then a question if when is the right time to help.

But neither of those questions was important to Jesus.

The right reason to help was that the man needed help. The right time to help was now, because Jesus could help.

If we’re going to be followers of Jesus, we need to let this story be an example to us.

So my challenge this week is to be aware of times when someone needs help and we have the capacity to be that help.

May we let go of the question of how they came to need help, and whether they are worthy. May we let go of the question of whether this is the right time to help.

May we instead recognize that humans are complex systems that sometimes work in unexpected ways, and sometimes need a little help.

Just as they are.

And just as we are.

Amen.

Let’s sing NCH 207 Just As I Am

* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue

* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.

Quote of the day, 15 March: Silvio José Báez, ocd

It’s true that God seems to be hidden in the pain, but in reality, he’s present, always working mysteriously for our good, even now.

In the difficult moment that humanity is experiencing, we have to walk with serenity like the blind man in the Gospel of John (9:1-41); we have to face uncertainty without losing our inner peace…

The blind man’s perseverance, walking in the midst of conflict and incomprehensible hostility, teaches us that we recover our sight to the extent that we recognize that we don’t see everything clearly, that we don’t understand everything completely, but we trust in Jesus and resist with the light of faith and the strength of his love.

When we feel tired, anxious, and afraid that this long night won’t end, let’s recognize with serenity that we don’t see clearly—that darkness surrounds us. Jesus came “that those who do not see may see” (Jn 9:39). He wants to sharpen our interior gaze, to cure our blindness, and to give us his light so that we may see more deeply.

During this Lent, we must take time to be silent and pray, to listen to the Word of God, and to pray as a family. It’s time to prostrate ourselves before the Lord and adore him. God may seem to be absent, but right there where he doesn’t even seem to be, he is consoling us and giving us strength, marvelously weaving a plan of life for all of humanity.

God consoles us in our helplessness and pain and gives us the strength of his love so that through everyone’s solidarity and sacrifice we can save ourselves. God is with us— and through Jesus, the light of the world, he sustains us in our littleness and gives us the capacity to see in the darkness, beyond all blindness.

Silvio José Báez, o.c.d.

Auxiliary Bishop of Managua
Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (excerpts), 22 March 2020

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Christ Healing the Blind Man, Gioacchino Assereto (Italian, 1600–1649), c. 1640 oil on canvas. Image credit: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (Public domain).

I love the part where Max Hodak speaks of blind people seeing a flash of light when hearing a sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gspRJVp9dI&t=590s PRIMA retinal implant

How does seeing with sound really work? Watch The vOICe vision BCI video with stereo headphones on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVugtxWmW4E #noninvasive #BCI #blindness