Lent 2020 Catholic Volunteer Network and Catholic Apostolate Center Lenten Guide 2020 | Page 7

By Mike Jordan Laskey, Notre Dame ECHO
“One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”
(John 9:1-41)
My postgrad service experience wasn’t with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, but I still love the unofficial motto that
pops up in JV circles all the time: “Ruined for life.” I can relate. One summer during college, I helped lead high
school students on faith-based service immersion experiences. I went into the work thinking of it as a mere summer
job, one stop on my road to a career as a sportswriter. But then I had the most powerful few months of my life, and
I had new sense of what “vocation” meant: I was going to devote my life to social justice ministry because I had no
other choice. God was calling me. Everything changed, and my life plans were ruined. I know a lot of fellow
volunteers have similar stories.
The man born blind in today’s Gospel passage has a similar moment of life-changing clarity. I’m not sure who this
Jesus guy is, he says. “One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.” The world has opened up to him, and
by the end of the passage, he is worshiping Jesus, his values totally transformed. We’re not always blessed with
such sudden, dramatic moments of clarity – I know I sometimes hunger for the fresh energy and zeal I felt that
summer 15 years ago. But God is always there, reaching out to us in quiet ways, inviting us into deeper relationship
with Him and with our sisters and brothers. How might God be trying to open my eyes today?
Loving God, give us clear vision. Help us to see those living on the margins not as the world
sees them, but as You see them. When we feel weighed down by injustice, cynicism or
complacency, give us the zealous faith of the man born blind, whose encounter with Christ
changed everything. This Laetare Sunday, as we rejoice in anticipation of the Resurrection,
renew our spirits fill us with your peace. We pray this through Christ, Our Lord, AMEN.
At the beginning of the passage, Jesus’ disciples want to know who sinned, the blind man or his parents, that led to
the man’s suffering. His suffering wasn’t caused by anyone’s sin, Jesus corrects them. This is an important reminder.
Even subconsciously, we can be tempted to blame those living on the margins of society for their own situations.
But as Pope Francis reminds us when he talks about building a culture of encounter, the Gospel response to
injustice is to not to judge, but to get to know people living on the peripheries and grow to love them. If we do
this, we won’t be able to help ourselves from working to transform the systems and structures that oppress them.
One theme of Laetare Sunday, this day of rejoicing and rose-colored vestments in the middle of the solemn Lenten
season, is that we rejoice despite the darkness that surrounds us. Or, as Wendell Berry writes, “Be joyful though you
have considered all the facts.” No matter what form of service you might participate in the remainder of this Lenten
season, my invitation to you is to consciously be one level more joyful than you’d typically be going into a service
experience. I don’t mean you have to be overcaffeinated or super-smiley if that’s not your way. I like this
description of joy by the theologian Henri Nouwen. Bring some of this with you into service: “Joy is based on the
spiritual knowledge that, while the world in which we live is shrouded in darkness, God has overcome the world.”
Fourth Sunday of Lent | 2020