Walking with Jesus: Fourth Sunday of Lent A

For Sunday, March 15, 2026

1 Samuel 16:6-7, 10-13; Ephesians 5:8-14; John 9:1-41


Something wonderful is happening today in Scriptures: More of God’s plan for the world is coming to the surface, being discovered, unearthed, uncovered and revealed. God, who is love, has created out of love the whole universe and all it contains. God has formed humanity as the pinnacle of His creative powers and placed all people into a specific place at a particular time to be workers — protagonists — administrators of God’s love for all who live and follow God’s command of love. Do I realize how special each of us is to be chosen to touch another, to show that God is love, and that God needs each and all to love — so we can realize how special His creation is? And how vital it is that we utilize our gift of love so that all can see God’s love and the part each person plays in God’s universal plan to bring all to heaven? I am that needed … you are that needed … and we are not alone. God gives us help (called grace) to get us over the pitfalls and difficulties of daily living and evade Satan's destructive temptations to refuse love and obstruct love’s goal.

The Fourth Sunday of Lent is also the second of the three scrutiny Sundays for OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) for prospective converts to the Catholic faith. Each of these Sundays, from St. John’s Gospel, determines the principal dimension of our consideration. Last Sunday we heard the story of the Samaritan woman advancing in personal growth, realizing she is important to God. So are we, no matter our backgrounds and problems that create hardship in daily living — we also advance, taking steps that move us beyond that life to venture to a new life of grace with God’s help. Today’s principal theme is seeing. Seeing is important in the first readings and the Gospel: It is our entry into a much deeper theme, one of religious insight. The readings play on the themes of darkness, blindness and light: Sight. As our lives have developed we have judged by appearances. God, however, looks into the heart to find the real person.

In the first reading we see how God chooses David — not one of his seven older brothers — to be king. I can identify with David being the youngest, as I am. It’s nice at times, but being referred to as the “baby” is not always so comfortable. According to the custom of the time, David would be the last of the siblings to be chosen as leader. Scripture often shows us that God’s ways are not our ways. God turns things upside down, choosing the weak of the world to confront the strong. Such it is with God's instruction: “The Lord said, ‘There, anoint him (David) for this is the one!’ Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand, anointed David in the presence of his brothers; and from that day on, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David.” [1 Samuel 16:13] We don’t take too much note of it, but many of us have been anointed similarly — in the Church at Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, the Priesthood. How blessed I am — how blessed you are. A great reflection.

Ephesians contains a prime example of early Christian self-awareness or identity — how they experience and envision the meaning and significance of their new life in Jesus Christ. As they are told, we are told: Be who you are called to be. So If I am another Christ — if people see Jesus in you and me by our love, caring, forgiveness and uplifting of others who are with us — how am I doing? How are you doing? What do you and I need? Are we asking for it?

In the Gospel, Jesus offers His most developed encounter with one of His miracle people. It so succinctly develops a dualism, conveying life with and without divine grace: light and darkness, life and death, sight and blindness, truth and falsehood. It features the “Jews” — not the Jewish people but a collective character and symbol of all who reject Jesus as God. Do I want God to be the god *I* want Him to be? Or do I realize He is always telling us about Himself — who He is, how present He is in my life all the time, and that I need Him to live this life here on Earth with love — Jesus’ love, which comes from God? If I am to live this life I have to know Jesus, His love, and His care. Am I doing this? Lent is the time to deepen my love for God and ascertain how I am living for God.

So I reflect on:

Paul says that we are light in the Lord: So am I light? What do I do when I see my own species of darkness exposed by the Light of God? Am I committed to goodness that is pleasing to God? Or am I like the Pharisees, resistant to God’s grace working around me?

Sacred Space 2026 states:

“We get little cameo pictures of Jesus and how He dealt so kindly with those who approached Him. It’s often fascinating to contrast His kindness with how the Pharisees acted in similar circumstances when they came across people weighed down with misfortune. Those who came to Jesus with simplicity and no hidden agendas were treated with wonderful kindness and respect. The man born blind from birth saw that salvation and deliverance had been given to him that day and he had the graciousness to throw himself down before the Lord and worship Him.”