Fourth sunday in Lent

Fourth Sunday in Lent

Through faith we are saved and are physically healed

The great philosopher Plato once said that all the invalid people should be taken to the mountain top and from there, they all should be thrown down because they are waste of society. So many people even today treat disabled people differently, but today’s gospel says that they are here for the glory of God. People who are physically or mentally challenged and people who are sick can completely be healed when they have faith in God Almighty. Faith heals and makes us new each and every day.

Once a man who stopped going to Church wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper saying, “Going to Church makes no sense to me. I have gone to church for thirty years now and in that time I have heard something like 3, 000 sermons. But to be honest with myself, I cannot remember a single one of them. So I think that I wasted my time, energy and resources and also the preachers who did all the sermons.

Then a week after, there was another letter to the editor saying, “ I have been married thirty years now and during this time, my wife cooked about thirty-two thousand meals and to be honest with you, I can not recall every single one of them. But one thing I know those meals gave me strength to do my job and live my life. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise If I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today.

When we have faith in God, miracles happen.

Today there are so many books on how to prolong life, look beautiful, and lose weight and so on. Everything about body healing and living happily ever after. But they all fail because they forget to focus on the inner-self, the spirit that does everything in a person’s body. The soul is the one that keeps the body alive, makes the body beautiful and youthful. When the soul is being nourished, our body becomes new and holy.

With what can we feed the soul?

We can feed our soul with faith. Faith opens us to miracles and wonders of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In today’s gospel, Jesus by touching the born blind healed him. Then the Pharisees and the scribes and people came to him and asked, ‘now you are healed and you can see things clearly. What do you say about the man who healed you?” He said he was a holy man, prophet, the Messiah. He increased my faith in Him and thus I could see now and I fell physically stronger and healthier. But they instead of having faith in the Messiah criticized and chased him away.

Once a man was blessed to have a dog that could walk on water. The man was so excited and wanted to show to his friend who was more like the Pharisees criticizing everything and doing nothing. Every time the man threw a ball in the water, the dog responded and jumped into the water, the dog, however did not sink but instead walked across to pick up the ball. This continued all day along; each time he threw the ball in the water, the dog walked on the water and picked up the ball.

But his friend did not say a word about anything. On the way back home, the man looked at his friend and asked, “Did you notice anything unusual about my dog?’

The man said, “Yes, of course, “your dog can not swim”.

We will always meet people who will criticize and put us down because of our faith in Jesus. In the gospel today we see how Jesus after hearing what happened to the blind man who got healed met him again and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” The man’s very belief gave him courage to face everything. He went with faith and began to proclaim the Good News.

Conclusion:

Dear friends, the season of Lent in a special way invites us to keep our faith alive in the love and kindness of God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is our duty to renew our faith each and every day saying, “I do believe, Lord”. Yes, every time we say, “I do believe, Lord’ His miracles will continue in and through us. Amen.