Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year A) March 15, 2026

March 15, 2026 0 By BLACKCATHOLIC

The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included.

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (A)

1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41 [Focus of Homily]

Transcript:

“‘He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.’” Words from Gospel According to John.

In the Name of the Father + and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In our Gospel story a man was sitting in darkness.

He had been sitting in darkness for a long time,

As long as he could remember.

But “darkness” for him was not what most of us typically know as darkness.

He was a man who was blind from birth,

And he was now a known outcast begging in the street.

One day he heard footsteps gathering close to him and a discussion was taking place.

He felt the vibration of steps through the ground, and they seemed to stop right in front of him.

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”, multiple voices asked.

It was the same old debate he had heard before,

And it was always either him or his parents to blame for his blindness.

Then he heard one separate voice alone respond and give a different answer,

“Neither he nor his parents sinned.”

This was a voice of hope, but then it became one of confusion.

The separate voice said, “We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Before he could even begin to think about what this could possibly mean, the blind man heard the familiar sound of someone spitting on the ground next to him.

But then he felt hands gently grabbing and pulling him in a particular direction.

Next, he felt what seemed like wet dirt being rubbed on his eyelids.
Now, let me ask you something, brothers and sisters.

Have you ever been dirty?

Dirty on a deeper level than skin, unclean in your soul.

Dirty with sins and missteps covering your soul like wet dirt covered the blind man’s eyes.

Have you ever been in spiritual darkness?

Have you ever been blind?

By your own sin?

To your own sin?

A voice piercing through the darkness is heard: “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam”

Later in our gospel story the man born blind,

Now miraculously healed by the washing of the dirt from his eyes in a pool,

Was being pulled to and fro by the Pharisees only to get

insulted,
denied,
lied to,
and lied about regarding him and about the source of his healing.

Now, again, let me ask you something, brothers and sisters.

Have you ever been yanked around, insulted, denied, and lied to in your face?

About small things?

About big things?

At work?

At school?

In your family?

In your marriage?

Another way to put it is – have you’ve been blind-ed?

By others?

By the world?

By the devil?

By yourself?

Perhaps, blinded, most of all, from seeing God in your life?

A question is posed: “What do you have to say about [the one who] opened your eyes?”
– And again, we are back to our gospel story.

The man born blind was thrown out and cast aside.

Brothers and sisters, have you been thrown out by others?

Our blind man was left alone in the gospel.

Have you ever been left alone like this?

Perhaps, waiting for the Son of Man to come and find you?

These questions that I ask you I ask also to myself.

So, I am with you, and our answers to a lot of these questions is – yes.

If we have been living in this dirty and blind world for more than 5 minutes, then we have to say that we have been made dirty and unable to see the light.

Blind to our sins.

Blinded by the sins of others.

Thrown out.

Cast out.

Left alone and left waiting.

Wallowing in the mire.
Long before Jesus gently covered our eyes with His healing balm to open them,

They had been smothered in black sticky thickness of the world’s gunk.

I say it again brothers and sisters that we were made dirty.

But this gospel,

On this Sunday,

And everything from the color of my vestments to God’s word that just blessed us,

Tell us the Good News in the way that only the Lenten season can:

That Jesus gets dirty with us.

Jesus gets hands-on with us.

Jesus gets with us.

Jesus goes in with us.

Jesus makes clay for us, with us, and even out of us.

Then Jesus gets in the mix, mixes with us, and makes us a mix to heal the blindness of this world deformed by sin.

Even though we were dirty in that same sin, Jesus meets us like He did the blind man,

in our state,
in our reality,
in our pain,
in our suffering,
in our blindness

and not just in generalized ways but as individuals in the concrete ways that we each need to be met.

Jesus takes the initiative in loving us, and so Jesus takes the initiative in healing us .

Even though he often asks people in the gospels

(and us in our lives)

if they want to be healed,

Jesus is always ready at hand to give us healing.

You know, the blind man was counted out.

We were counted out.

But we can nevertheless count the ways in both the message in this particular gospel and the message of the Gospel truth in general, how God is remains with us.

Jesus and the man born blind on one hand,

– God and humanity born with original sin on the other.

Jesus spits into the ground and dirt becomes clay.

– God comes to earth, takes on earthly flesh, and becomes man.

Jesus heals the man born blind with the clay He has created.

– God heals us men and women born sinners with the humanity He has created.

God did not abandon the creation He had made when it fell into sin.

– God does not abandon us whom He has made when we fall into sin.

Our own slice of the 285 total catechumens in our diocese waiting to receive the saving grace of baptism and the supercharge of the Holy Spirit through confirmation this year is living proof right of this here at Our Lady of the Lake.

And in just a few more weeks, we will all re-live these truths of our faith again in granddaddy of all church celebrations – Easter.

And so, Jesus tells the blind man “Go and wash.”

Jesus tells us to “Go and wash” – and not just the people coming into the Church.
It is time to go the Pools of Siloam in our lives.

The Pools of our Faith.
The Pools of the Catechism and learning what we believe and why.
The Pools of the Sacraments.
The Pools of the lives of the saints that show us examples of Christ.
The Pools of prayer life with the floaties of our rosaries and the life jackets of our chaplets.

Now, come to the waters.

Let us go and wash.

And then, we shall not only be cleansed – but healed.

And not only healed – but sent.

Sent like Siloam “—which means Sent—.”

And these waters shall not put out the Light of Life,

But serve as the fuel for it

And this Light is the Light that Jesus has opened up our eyes to see.

In the Name of the Father + of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Given at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Hendersonville, TN