“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?” — Our Lord Jesus addresses this question to His disciples trying to tell them that they need to be healed of their spiritual blindness first. In this context blindness is not to believe in Christ and healing means to have faith in Jesus who is the Light of the world. In other words, when we gain our spiritual sight through faith, then we will be able to help others on the way to salvation. Without faith in Jesus we just remain living in the darkness of sin. Without Jesus we are all like blind men bouncing against the walls of reality and against each other. However, when we embrace faith in God in the person of Jesus and let our hearts be set on Christ, then He—the Son of God and Our Lord—becomes our guide. Because of that our every step will be illumined with the light of faith. While putting our faith into action in our daily life we also start bearing good fruits of an authentic and happy life.
As we begin the season of Lent this week, let us try to set our hearts and minds on Christ, who came to rescue us from the darkness of ignorance and from eternal damnation. Yes, many people do not like this word “damnation,” but we must realize that this is exactly the reason Christ came into the world so that we might not perish but that we might have eternal life (John 3:16). And according to Jesus’ own words “this is eternal life, that [we] should know the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). How much do you know Christ? How much is He part of your life? Maybe this is a good time to realize that you have been wasting your life and now Jesus is calling you to sincere conversion.
Let us remember that Lent is about conversion, about setting things right with God and with our neighbor through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Prayer helps us to focus on God. This means that we should set time apart for prayer without any devices, activities, or other people distracting us. Fasting, apart from its real medicinal benefits, helps us to restrain our carnal passions and to recognize that our life does not depend on bread (food) alone. Fasting is also a powerful spiritual weapon in our fight against evil spirits. So do not neglect this long-standing Catholic tradition and do it more seriously, especially in the spirit of obedience to the Church’s teaching while refraining from eating meat on Fridays and from other pleasurable dishes (cakes, ice cream etc.) throughout the season of Lent. Ideally fasting would involve bread and water only on certain days of lent — do not worry, you will not die. Finally, almsgiving helps us to grow in kindness and generosity, indeed, we will grow in charity. We also become more sensitive to the needs of others. Also, while we share the things we have we also become free of disordered attachments to wealth and material things.
Have a blessed week. Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pastor