St Augustine tells us the blind man was baptized in Christ and anointed. He says we too were born blind as children of Adam but now we see because Jesus gives us light.
So the blind man’s journey is our journey too.
We too encounter Christ and are baptized, many were only children with no faith yet either,…like the blind man.
But then he again encounters Christ and begins to better understand who Jesus really is and grows in faith.
We too are called to encounter Christ after baptism and understand and grow in faith.
We hear the man was able to see and his acclamation of “I do believe, Lord” was when he leaves behind his life of darkness physically and spiritually.
The question for us today is do we live like a spiritually blind man or one who sees the light.
Baptism was just the start. The baptized must encounter Christ again and draw more deeply into the light of truth. To allow the light to shine throughout our life.
But too often we can find ourselves living a different way.
The blind man’s inability to see… shaped his world. It impacted what he did every day…how he interacted with others. It colored his relationships ….and life meant begging and struggling.
Our lives can be colored and shaped by different things too. For many, work impacts life and living and relationships, even how we see others…who we hang out with. Who are friends are. How we dress…all influenced by what is most important in our lives.
For many it’s distractions that color our world…whether it’s sports or Hollywood or desires or ambitions. When we meet someone we ask what do you do for a living…what is your work….what team do you watch…whose your favorite player…we engage others and form lives around work, sports, recreation, travel, pastimes….these things are not bad but sometimes they can be the primary focus of who we are.
[pause] but God says we are baptized and we are called through baptism to continue to learn about Jesus and grow closer to him, so his light is what colors everything…blankets and touches and changes our work and desires and life. It changes our relationships too.
The baptized who see the truth of Jesus and his light … keep their eyes on Jesus. Even before faith has properly taken hold of them, they chose Jesus and so continue to encounter Him, each time saying yes and opening themselves up to the light and truth of Jesus Christ.
The greatest mistake made by many who are baptized is to see baptism as some magical spell. A spell that is cast and now we are complete, and no further effort is needed. One and done. But it really is just the first step in a journey to eternal life. The life that follows baptism should be filled with learning more…encountering Jesus often and having the chance to grow in faith and in the light of Christ.
We have many opportunities to learn. To open ourselves to Christ and his teachings.
We have opportunities to learn and encounter Jesus more here at St Theresa. We have the men’s group and the women’s groups which meet weekly. We have missions. We have prayer groups and study groups or events in the diocese ..opportunities to learn and experience Christ’s church…
…. we may ask why should I go to the meeting. I am busy. I have other things to do. I go to mass every Sunday. We are swamped—and are juggling things as it is. I get it. I really do.
–Slow– But we can put everything else ahead of Christ and lose the opportunity to really encounter him.
If we let other things color our world and do not engage our faith and church, the spark of light shown at our baptism doesn’t have a chance…it is a tiny spark and never becomes a lifelong flame shining brightly ….for the journey has stopped. Worshipping has gone stale and no longer has meaning. We may find mass something just to get through. We come to the Eucharist not realizing the moment when we join together with God….true God and true flesh.
Our journey is like the blind man’s journey. We must continue down the path we are called to as baptized. We must be open enough to allow Christ to find us again and touch us again.
For our calling is to lead others to him.
Our readings tell us how God uses those least expected to be leaders and to show others his glory.
We are also called to shine the light of Christ for others as Christians and we can do so if we continue to say yes to Jesus, yes to opportunities to continue our own journey to a deeper faith.
–Pause—You know I have to take a boat load of continuing education for all aspects of my work. Licenses and certificates and memberships require ongoing training and learning and involvement. I know I need to keep learning about my trade and work so I am the best I can be at it.
I know many of us here do the same and even more. There is no other way to stay current, grow in our profession and be competent than to continue to study and engage.
Learning for work is part of our life.
If we are serious about our eternal life and serious about wanting the peace and joy that Christ brings we need to add continuing education and opportunities to meet Christ as part of our week too.
Our children also need to continue to learn and engage their faith. They have so many activities… they are in trouble of having a faith life stunted and stopped at baptism prep or confirmation training. Most parents no longer make time for them to grow in faith by insisting on time to learn more about Jesus and encounter others who have the light of Christ inside them. We put soccer and football and baseball and music and whatever….always and every week ahead of our children’s salvation and opportunity to know true joy. And we wonder what happened to our children when they leave the church.
I know it’s a struggle because I hear it all the time.
It can be a challenge to prioritize what activities are first in our life and our children’s lives. But Jesus told us the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart soul and strength….that is a pretty clear message. To love God with everything … should look more like overwhelming devotion than a casual thought or action wherever we can fit it in this week.
In the end it is a yes or no decision.
Anything that takes us away from God is not the right decision.
We only need to decide what is important to us and what we are going to do about it. Write it down. Mark the date…make a commitment. We treat all other activity in our life that way. At least the important ones.
When I was in high school there was a poster I remember. They wanted us to go to college so they had posters encouraging that. One poster said…not to decide is to decide. If we don’t think about the decision then we don’t need to decide. But we really already have.
I think we can easily just choose not to think about our faith journey as something that needs attention. We can choose not to think about growing closer to God or how to make God part of our lives. But in doing so we are deciding to abandon our spiritual growth and abandon our relationship with God.
The truth is we are either growing closer to God or we are moving away from him. All of our important relationships are this way. Those of us who are married know our relationship with our spouse today is a million times deeper and closer than when we met.
If our relationship with God isn’t better this year than last year we are headed in the wrong direction.
-pause—
At Baptism a candle was lit and given to the family. They were told that the candle was the light of faith and it must be kept burning brightly.
We were born blind but now we see. Let us not choose to step back into darkness. To reject the gift of light Jesus gave us.
We have been chosen by God. We have been found by Jesus. We have been given the light to see the truth. But we have to choose to say yes, every day. To encounter and say I do believe Lord and take the next step growing closer to God.
Deacon Tony Pynes 
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