4th Sunday of Lent 2008

In Western and Central Africa there is a disease that is called river blindness. It is caught by people from parasites that live on flies which live and breed near fast flowing rivers. It is estimated that as many as 18 million people have the disease (300,000 people who have caught it are now irreversibly blind). Up to 125 million people are at risk of catching it, they live near these rivers and are in danger of catching the parasite - it can cause glaucoma, cataracts and complete blindness. If you get the illness in birth or infancy and it is not attended to you will most certainly be blind by the age of 40. There are different ways of controlling it some of which can be quite expensive: spraying the rivers or slowing the rivers down to make them poor breeding grounds for the flies. Another way is by wearing more clothes but this is impractical because it is too hot. The only effective way is to medicate, the drugs are cheap, they could be made available, but often there are no services.

The problems of the third world are very real. Here is a problem that people in our part of the world don’t have to think about. Over there many people live in danger of becoming blind. Of course, if you are blind, then you cannot work, if you cannot work you don’t eat. If you cannot see then you have to depend on others. The problem could be easily solved cheap medicine and doctors and nurses to medicate. The only problem is that they cannot get there hands on the medicine and the services are inadequate.

The man in the Gospel lives in this world. He has been blind from birth. For him there is no cure and because he is blind he is destitute reduced to begging. The further problem that he has is that people believed he is cursed, he has done something wrong or someone in his family has done wrong. He is shunned. In many ways he must think himself cursed to end up with such misfortune. Of course something changes, Jesus gives him sight. He is so often pictured as the one who heals brokenness: people walk again, deaf people hear, hungry people are fed, thirsty people get water, dead people are alive, people who have lost their mind come to their senses. He comes to bring that healing and peace that mankind years for.

We take this as our cue this Sunday and every day. As the second reading reminds us that once we lived in darkness now we live in the light. The Gospel reminds us that once we were blind but now we see.

We are in the light and we can see clearly. God has given us our mission. Who is our neighbour? In the great parable of the Good Samaritan, the person who is our neighbour is anyone who needs our help, don’t pass by on the other side. Be generous with your time and money. Jesus is the Good Samaritan who bends down, lifts us up, looks after us and heals us. he is the one who teaches us to be the good Samaritan ourselves. The thing that we believe is that we live in a world that is not cursed, but it is healed and readeamed by the presence of Jesus.

Today we have the chance to help bring about that healing and recemption through our support for w rok that brings healing, SCIAF. Sciaf has become recognised as the most effective Scots based third world charity, founded by a former parish priest of this parish and based in it’s first years at our neighbouring parish in Rutherglen. It is the third world agency of the Catholic Church in Scotland. It raised 7 million pounds last year worked on 80 projects. It has helped raise for instance 2.2 million for Tsunami 650,000 for Darfur. It has 100 parish groups and makes 200 school visits each year contacting directly 30,000 pupils. It fundraises throughout the year but especially is linked to the Lenten season and the spirit of almsgiving that is part of Lent – last year from parishes 800,000 was raised during Lent.

There are many types of blindness. You can be blind from birth or you can become blind in later life through illness. But there are more types of blindness than physical blindness there can also be the blindness of indifference. It would be easy to be blind to the plight of others around the world. Easy to retreat to your own home, your own life, your own part of the world. But not for us we are not stumbling about in the darkness, we can see clearly. Not for us to pass by on the other side of the road. If people are hungry we want to feed them, if people are homeless we want to house them, if people want a better education we want to help them to provide it, if people want to be better we want to help them. Sciaf allows us to do that. We believe in a world that is redeemed by God not cursed by him. This is what underlines our work.

River blindness is only one of the many things that Sciaf is helping with. There are many other things that afflict third world countries. Sciaf is working hard to heal the world, it is a godly work. top Comment on this Homily