You x God
A lent reflection on John 9:1–41
Welcome back to Ordinary Gospel, where I interpret the Sunday readings from the perspective of an ordinary Catholic. I’m not a theologian, so I welcome everyone’s input to enrich our understanding.
I use the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) with Apocrypha for the Bible.
This Sunday’s gospel is from John 9:1–41, which tells the story of Jesus and the blind man at the Pool of Siloam.
TL;DR:
- Jesus healed a born-blind man
- The Pharisees investigated the sabbath healing
- Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for spiritual blindness
In this lent, John 9:3 resonates with me. Jesus said to them,
Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s work might be revealed in him
Life is full of fortunate and unfortunate circumstances. For the fortunate ones, we credit ourselves. For the unfortunate ones, we blame others, typically God. This is commonly known as self-serving bias.
God loves humanity, and He gave all of us free will. Consequently, others’ free will (good or bad) may cause us a disadvantage. Similarly, our free will may also cause a disadvantage for others.
Hence, we could attempt to control those within our sphere of influence. However, other factors, such as luck, may still affect the outcome. It is far from ideal, but it is the reality.
Therefore, we realise that control itself is an illusion. The TV gospel claims that we should control our destiny, which puts the burden squarely on us when things go sideways.
Jesus is the good news. He works in our weaknesses and unfortunate situations. We all love miracle stories, which is only possible because of Him.
Rest assured that God is always with you throughout your life. The more we learn from it, the more it leads us to become the person God wanted us to be.
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