The gospels for this Season of Lent have taken us from the wilderness, to a mountain top, to a water well in the land of Samaria, and this Sunday, we are just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. That’s the geography of the stories. The themes of the gospels speak of temptation, revelation and listening to Jesus, and in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, a message about conversion in belief that led to a mission of telling others the good news that the Messiah has come. Today’s gospel not only continues the message of conversion, but tells a story of people blind to the truth of Jesus and so remain unconverted. These are all episodes we encounter and re-encounter in our life. From womb to tomb, from the waters of Baptism to the gates of Heaven, we are called to a life of continuous conversion. From being children of the Light to being the Light for others.

That all sounds very inspiring, but pause for a moment and think about how busy we are with things … good, holy activities that in their own way build the kingdom of God. But have we put our own on-going conversion on hold? Do we think about it? That is the thing about Lent. It asks us to slow down and consider that very thing. It is an opportunity for our reflection to be guided by a verse from the first reading when the Lord says to the prophet Samuel, “man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.”  What will the Lord find when He looks into our hearts? Of course, it’s our whole life, our being, our thoughts, and more, but what will He find about the conversion on-going in our lives? How would we compare to our 8th grade selves? 

During Lent the Catechumens and Candidates in the OCIA program stand in great relief as an exemplar of conversion. Drawn by the grace of God they all want what we already have – full communion with the Catholic Church. Everyone of the 40+ people in this year’s class has an amazing story of on-going conversion in which they are responding to the grace of God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit. They are certainly an inspiration to the OCIA team and hopefully to you too.

I suspect most of us were baptized as infants, were confirmed while still in grade school, and that maybe that was the last experience of formal Catholic religious education and formation.  That is not to say that your faith has not been deepening in the years since, but, you know… life gets busy, gets complicated, and there’s not enough time for all we want to do. It’s overcome by what we have to do.

Today’s gospel speaks to us when it says, “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”  Are we doing that? Are fully, completely, and wholeheartedly living as children of the light. 

The story of conversion in the man born blind is easy to follow. His encounter echoes the very story of Creation itself in Genesis. Jesus takes dirt to create a salve, applies it to the man’s eyes and tells him to wash himself. It is as though the man is passing through the waters of Baptism. His journey is now beginning, marked by grace. Now he can see the physical world and now we trace his spiritual conversion. He describes Jesus successively as: “The man called Jesus” then “A prophet” then “A man from God” and finally, “Lord”, whom he worships. This gradual movement mirrors the journey of faith that Lent invites believers to undertake. 

But what about the others in the story? This man, blind from birth, is well known in the community. His parents, his neighbors, and his religious leaders all experience the miracle. Which one of them echoes the realization and moves from “The man called Jesus” to “Lord”, and then worship? The parents and neighbors hem and haw, missing a moment in their lives to encounter the One who is the Light of the World. Meanwhile, the Pharisees move in the opposite direction: they become more certain and more blind. As religious leaders that means they are the blind leading the blind. There is a telling verse in the second reading. St. Paul doesn’t describe this as “in darkness.”  He says that they are darkness. They are the ones who have witnessed the Light and choose to remain unconverted.

The parents and neighbors? I hope their son returns to them and once they absorb and process the miracle done for their son, free of fear from the religious leaders, they will experience St. Paul’s admonition: “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

In the gospels of Lent, the Church holds up two stories of conversion. The Samaritan Woman came to well alone, she left her jar behind, and she returned to the town as a witness. This is the shape of Christian conversion: encounter, conversion, and mission. She is sent back into life but sent differently – now sustained by the living water of Christ. The man born blind leaves his blindness behind, and I suspect, returns to his life and gives witness sustained by the Light of Christ, trying to live as St. Paul admonishes us in the second reading: “Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.”

We came to this Season of Lent as we are. What will we leave behind? What will we have learned? Will we hesitate, hem and haw? Remain in darkness? Become darkness itself? Or will we let the living water sustain us? Will we take the remaining days before Holy Week to reflect on what it would mean for us to live more fully as a child of the Light? Figure out what it might mean for us to produce what is good, righteous and true? Will we try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord?  Will we live a life of ongoing conversion that we live fully, becoming the Light of Christ to a world in darkness.

Image credit: Healing of the Man Born Blind, El Greco, 1567, Public Domain