The Man Born Blind

 As preached by Sister Cecelia
Holy Wisdom Church

1 Peter 3:13-22, Acts 9:32-43, John 9:1-39

One of the constant themes of monastic spirituality is the notion of keeping vigil: watching for the coming of the Lord. We are to be vigilant and alert for the subtle ways the kingdom of God breaks into our consciousness. For in those moments, we touch the elusive mystery of God on earth.

For the man born blind, the mystery of Jesus healing him revealed the message that Jesus is the light of the world for all to see.  Christ said that as long as he was in the world, he was the light of the world. The mystery is that Christ said that he is with us always, having died, but rising and sending his own Spirit to be with us. Watch and pray!

Only by faith can we live peacefully with the knowledge that we will die. What can help is to notice the daily deaths we all undergo throughout our lives – those errors in judgement and moments of alienation, the hurt feelings and careless words that we utter or that others say to us.  Notice that death never has the last word. A quiet call stirs from the depth of who we are: Rise up! Rise up to new life, to a better vision of who we can become!  Hope rises with each new day. Being able to let hope spread is to begin each day in stillness. Take nothing for granted, but be open to whatever the coming day may be.

Ours is an age that is increasingly uncomfortable with silence. When we embrace silence with courage, we are given the chance to be mindful of God’s abiding presence. Silence allows us to be aware of our own thoughts and to choose our own way with care. Focusing our mind makes our life fertile soil for the coming day.

Anything we achieve comes from God. We need to give serious thought to what in Jesus we are striving daily to imitate. We believe many things about the Christ, about our God. Let’s give some thought to why we believe these things. We do believe in many mysteries of our faith. Why do we believe them? And why do we not believe some of them?

Many things about Jesus in Scripture do not look mysterious. His goodness, his compassion for the sick, the loss of loved ones, his sadness with those who would not believe him. Reflecting on these things will help us to remember that we are grace-bearing creatures, commanded to be the salt of the earth and to be a light for those around us. If we obey the divine command of service offered to others, with love, patience, gentleness, kindness, integrity, fidelity, and all the rest that goes with being witnesses for Christ, healing will come through us to others. Perhaps not as it did for Peter, with Tabitha and Aeneas, but in other ways.

 If our hearts are set on possessions, pleasure, good health, prestige, ease, and comfort, we are vulnerable to unhappiness. Any of those things can be lost at any time.  If the relationship with God is the highest priority, our blessedness is secure. Even when we are suffering, we can remember to unite our own suffering with Jesus’ sufferings, and we can attain peace. Sometimes we might be suffering because of less than smart decisions we have made, sometimes it is just due to the human condition. None of these sufferings should touch that which matters most: our relationship with God.

 We can find ourselves stumbling as if we were blind. We grasp and search for truth and wisdom, but usually not see Jesus right in front of us. if we would focus our life on Christ and keep our minds focused on the one needful thing, then we would see, we could affirm as did the blind man, “Lord, I believe.” Let us pray that Christ will illumine the way to that pearl of great price—the source of all.

Christ is risen!!

Sermon 208 May 18, 2025: 1Pt 2:18-25; Ac 9:1-19; Jn 4:3-30,39-42 “Samaritan Woman"

 As preached by Brother Luke

Holy Wisdom Church

Christ is risen!

 

       Brother John was convinced that dowsing for water was real. The dowsing rod looks to me like a large wishbone. It was the technique used to find the right location to dig our wells at New Skete and it was successful here. Once one finds the right spot, then to dig a well, one first has to break through the top layer of soil. Today's gospel lesson is about dowsing for, what Jesus calls, living water. And the scene takes place at Jacob's Well. And a well is the perfect image for the conversation that ensues between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. For like the modern day drill that digs for the well water, Jesus, with this woman, is digging down into her soul to reveal to her where the font of living water is to be found.

       One might argue that the most important element of this story takes place before the story begins. The woman went to the well to draw water as she undoubtedly did everyday. And that's when the story begins. She is about her normal chores. But on this particular day, when she got to the well she found her life looking at her: Jesus. She wasn't on a pilgrimage to a holy site. We know of no particular issue in her life pressing on her at this time. She was simply doing what she normally did. This is what we can often miss in our own lives. Jesus is with us in our ordinary daily activities. And the extraordinary will often emerge from the most ordinary events, if we notice. This Samaritan woman found her salvation while doing her normal work. It was in doing her normal tasks that Jesus met her.

       So when we are about our normal tasks, we are probably not thinking that Jesus is right beside us. After all, the Samaritan woman had no idea that Jesus was going to be sitting at Jacob's well. But Jesus knew. He also knew that this was the opportune time to break into her life and move her away from the mundane to become an evangelist. And she was ready, like the wise bridesmaids, to join Jesus in proclaiming the reign of God.

       The Orthodox Church has given this woman a name, Photini, meaning the enlightened one. She is called equal to the apostles. Her evangelizing work begins in her return to her village where she tells the men and women there of her encounter with Jesus, whom she believes to be the Messiah. She is a credible witness and they believe her, undermining the often repeated theory that she must have been a sinful woman or an adulterer because of having five husbands. But Jesus doesn't tell her to repent or to sin no more. He knows the societal prejudices of his day. She may have had five husbands because some predeceased her or divorced her. She may have needed a man to survive in the society of her time that gave women no standing and no rights. But her encounter with Jesus lets her break free of that restriction.

       This encounter between Jesus and Photini also models for us a liberating way to talk to God. She engaged with Jesus, asked questions, debated, not to be contrary, but to learn and grow her faith. She was seeking truth and Jesus never condemns her or dismisses her. He knows her life story up to that point and he knows the rest of her story too. The Orthodox Church fills in the rest of the story [a la Paul Harvey] having her baptized and named Photini by the disciples, evangelizing other Samaritan villages, traveling to Carthage and then called by Jesus to Rome at the time Emperor Nero where she, her family and others were tortured and imprisoned. Photini ultimately is martyred by being thrown into a dry well. The irony being she already had the living water.

       Even though the Samaritan woman's life was ordinary, her conversation with Jesus shows that she was aware of life's larger issues and nurtured a deep desire to seek the truth. She was able to cultivate and irrigate that deeper desire even while doing simple chores. Jesus knows all our stories. And he accompanies us on our life's journey. And we too can meet God in the ordinary, if we cultivate that awareness of God's presence around us and in us.

 

Christ is Risen!