Lulled into social blindness—who is responsible?
(03-14-2010)
A number of years ago I heard a gifted Dominican preacher offer an insightful link to our Gospel for this 4th Sunday of Lent. The reflection included Charles Dickens’ great novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens presents a prisoner who lived in a dark cell in the infamous prison, the Bastille. The prisoner was a cobbler-shoemaker by trade. To amuse themselves the guards gave him a small hammer and threw him useless scraps of leather and cloth. All day they would hear his endless tapping, his exercise in frustration. The French Revolution brought the liberation of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. In Dickens’ novel, the poor cobbler returned to his home. Immediately, he built a small, narrow, dark room in the center of his house just like his prison cell. Everyday those who passed-by could hear the tap-tap-tapping of his cobbler’s hammer. The poor man in the story could not break out of the sad monotony of darkness and fruitless labor. He preferred the darkness—like the characters in the Gospel of John for today and the contrasts of light and darkness.
The story of the Man Born Blind shows gradual movements. In the passage we come upon a man who wants to see and upon the Pharisees, who prefer the darkness— or worse yet, believe they see correctly and everyone else has wrong vision. The healing of the man born blind focuses on what happens to the man after the miracle and the relationship with the Pharisees who questioned him about the healing and worthiness.
The man takes steps of faith— tells his neighbors that the one called Jesus healed him. At two separate times the Pharisees announce that they are certain that this Jesus is a sinner, but the man stands up for Jesus saying that Jesus has done something never heard of before and must have an intimate relationship to God. The man is thrown out of the synagogue, excommunicated from his religion.
In his second meeting with Jesus the man is asked if he believes. The man falls down and worships the Savior. Spiritually, he goes from blindness to the light of faith. His faith, his divine inner vision, becomes clearer as the story unfolds. The faith of the Pharisees and scribes becomes muddier until they end up as the ones in darkness—blind to the Light of the Savior/God—yet believing they see better than anyone else. The man born blind chooses faith and receives the Light of the World.
In the same way, we have the ability to choose light or darkness. This might seem like an easy choice, but in reality, it is more comfortable for some to remain in the dark—a reason not to claim to be responsible. If we remain in the dark, we don’t have to learn what really happens during an abortion—and after, what really happens in the scenes behind pornography—how disposable humanity is, or what really happens about the plight of migrant workers and their families. If we remain in the dark, we don’t have to see what happens to people without medical insurance, or be bothered with explaining the policy of many states (like ours) that justify legally killing people to show that killing is wrong, or justifying invasions year after year with no results except the loss of our military personnel, innocent civilians, and continued rising of astronomical debt in a nation already bankrupt! Where is our media on this—mostly silent? 4,379 US Soldiers Killed, 31,669 Seriously Wounded as of 2/16/2010.Spent & Approved War-Spending - for Iraq and Afghanistan--about $940 billion of US taxpayers' funds spent or approved for spending through Sept 2010. (www.costofwar.com) How many veterans are suicidal or will be in need of lifelong medical care?In the dark we don’t want to admit that addiction is a disease not a crime and stop building prisoner labor camps that are money makers built on the illness of 70% of the prison population. Our state spends over twice the amount of tax dollars on prisons than on our schools! (Statistics taken from the Brookings Institute www.brookingsinstiture.com)
If we remain in the dark then we do not have to consider our Christian responsibility to the approximately 25 million in our country (mostly children) that go to bed hungry every day.
Confronted with knowledge we would really rather not have, like the Pharisees, like the poor cobbler, too often too many choose darkness; so that they do not have to take responsibility and act. What can I do I’m just one person? Well, we know how votes do count, we know what petitions and letters can do, just look at how Roe vs. Wade got established how the death penalty remains, how more tax dollars continue to go to building prisons than schools! Life and its sacredness are at issue in our nation and in the world, frankly because of us and our American selective vision. Many see what they want to see and refuse to see what makes them feel culpable or guilty.
Jesus comes to us and invites us this day to go and wash off paralyzing or rationalizing blindness! But it is our choice—to remain steeped in our sins of complacency, hypocrisy, bigotry or washing the mud from our spiritual eyes through seeking to live Jesus.
He calls us to remove the darkness of our personal lives and of our communal lives by being open to radical changes in our lifestyles to a Christian life. He calls us into light by being open to our responsibilities towards our country and the world we live in (not to even mention the environment and our consumption), to return being morally responsible and to work for justice—God’s justice and peace.
Yes, it can be more comfortable to remain in the dark. But it is also a prison. Walking into the light demands the tremendous sacrifice of letting Jesus light enter into our dark places that need healing and forgiveness. And to go to Confession, receive absolution, do penance, and change our lives! Then we can make a difference in our lives and that of others and be our best selves, the freedom of living and seeing one another through His vision.
Come into the light, Fr. Gordon
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