Only Jesus Heals

𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇 𝟏𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝟏 𝐒𝐚𝐦 𝟏𝟔:𝟏, 𝟔-𝟕, 𝟏𝟎-𝟏𝟑

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟐𝟑 “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐝; 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭.”

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟐: 𝐄𝐩𝐡 𝟓:𝟖-𝟏𝟒

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐉𝐍 𝟗:𝟏-𝟒𝟏

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: “𝐈 𝐝𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞, 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝!” (𝐯.𝟑𝟖) 

         In my younger days, my playmates and I loved to play with mud figures that we fashion out of the soil that we mix with the right amount of water to create a firm mound of malleable mud. At times we even shape them into marble-like projectiles that we use to throw at one another. And for the girls in our group, they create pies from the mud, and they role play the vendors who sell cupcakes and pies in real life.

         In today’s gospel as we usher in the Fourth Sunday of Lent, the Apostle John wrote in detail the healing of a man who had been “born blind,” by Jesus who formed mud in his hands from the soil that he picked up and mixed with his saliva.

         We read Jesus spitting on the ground and making mud and I’m sure this would bring us back to that time when we too played with mud. But Jesus had no intention of playing with the mud.

         While spittle is and was a pollutant and even today it would not only be unethical to spit at someone, but it would be a sign of contempt. But in the time of Jesus, some of the people believed that the saliva coming from honorable and respectable men did have healing properties.

         Such that when Jesus encountered the man who was born blind from birth or someone who had never received the gift of sight, he acted by spitting. This action of Jesus somehow recreated the first act of creation when God created materiality out of nothing.

         The first mud pie made from the creative touch of God the Father resulted in the creation of the first human being. Although it was not known if the man’s eyes had sockets in them, Jesus nevertheless showed that he can create something out of nothing to prove that he was the Son of God.

         There is another reality that we can digest from the gospel passage today and it is in that many of us today are actually blind – although not in a physical sense – because we have become selective in the things that we see or hear as our minds are constantly being filled with tons and tons of data from the different forms of media not to mention the endless gossip and negative stories and fakes news that are being passed on to us in the guise of information.

          We would go crazy just to process every piece of data that our bodies sense and that part of the brain that filters and processes all this information which is called the Reticular Activating System is at work almost 24/7 and what it does is it provides us with the right amount of data that we can handle.

        This is also the time when our humanness will spring into action as it helps us decide the course of action we will take. Most often, we miss what God wants us to do because we are busy doing other things. At times we set aside the Will of God and follow our own desires because we believe that our ideas are better than that of God. We fall into this trap because of the assent of the right to free choice that God has given us.

         We are, however, missing the point if we think that way because free choice is not about choosing to do what we want but choosing in doing what is compatible with the Will of God.

        There was a popular story that is still being told today, and it goes like this: Satan gathered his followers in a conference and he told them saying: “We should stop Christians from going to church. We should discourage them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We need to stop from them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship with Christ.’

         ‘If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ, and this is what I want you to do. Distract them from knowing their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!’

         “How shall we do this?” his followers asked. “Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and create diversionary schemes to occupy their minds,” he told them. “Tempt them to shop at malls and spend and spend and urge them to use their credit cards if they don’t have cash. Inspire them to focus on wealth-creation by encouraging them to work long hours so they can afford their lifestyles and will keep them from spending time with their children. As their family becomes fragmented their homes will be open to our influence.”

         "Keep their minds preoccupied with the mundane concerns so that they cannot hear that still small voice. Entice them to play on the radio or cassette player whenever they drive to keep them from praying the Rosary. Keep them busy with their iPads, and their cellular phones and watching Tiktok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and all those social media sites so that they will have no time to think of their Savior. And make sure that every store and restaurant plays standard music and not praise songs so that this breaks their connection with Christ.”

         “Fill their minds with news of calamities, accidents, crimes and fill the highways with pornographic billboards so that they will keep guessing why their Savior is allowing all these misfortunes. Load their eMail folders with offers to buy jewelries, clothes and accessories, wellness and beauty products. Discourage them from appreciating nature that will lead them to reflect on God's wonders. Urge them to go instead to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead.”

        “And when they meet for corporate worship and prayer meetings, drive them to engage in gossip and small talk so that they will leave their places of worship with troubled consciences and pent-up emotion. Fill their hearts with envy and move them to gather and plot against their pastoral leaders so that this will disunite their community.’  

          ‘Let them be involved in evangelization but overload them with projects and programs and many good causes that they forget to seek power from Christ. In this way they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of their projects and programs.”

        “Let them think highly of themselves so that they will start looking down on others. Let them believe in themselves that their church will not survive without them. In this way, their church will break at the seams, and their members will get discouraged and go back into the world where they came from. Keep them divided and in disagreement with one another especially their music ministries so that they won’t be able to sing and please their Savior.”

         There were hundreds of other to-do list that Satan gave his followers, and it was indeed a successful conference that the evil forces left and started implementing their marching orders.

         And so, you probably would ask why the Christian world appears to be moving the way it is now. You probably will also ask why Christian churches and or communities remain divided even today in a world that has been evangelized since Jesus walked the earth.

        During our Lenten journey, God doesn't see us as everyone else sees us. People around us may see us as successful or as failures, attractive or unattractive, popular or prominent, old and young, whatever. It doesn't really matter how others see us.

        What is important is that God sees our hearts and this is the Season that we need to come to Jesus Christ, confess our shortcomings and omissions and recommit our lives to him who made us and sustains us.

         Let us examine our consciences and ask in what ways have we failed God and ourselves? We can't hide from God and it’s no use to continue denying our sins, minimizing them, justifying them and blaming others for our misfortune.

         During our Lenten journey, know that God doesn't see us as everyone else sees us. People around us may see us as cool, successful, unattractive, popular, old, whatever. It doesn't matter at all how others may see us.

         God alone sees what is in our hearts. He sees us as we really are. We may thing that we may have fooled him, like those times when we boasted we're not afraid of anything, how we flaunted our arrogance to project our confidence, and exuding that disguised happiness we want others to see, yet deep inside we are wallowing in sorrow and despair. Or perhaps we're deeply grateful that God sees through all the shallow, negative judgments which so many people have placed on us. Probably it's both.

         Our Lord looks into our hearts and sees us as we really are. He sees our joys and our sorrows and he sympathizes with us. In this Lenten Season, let’s quiet down our spirits and really listen to what God is telling us. In this call for introspection, let us gather the courage to confess that we have not loved our Lord with our whole hearts, nor loved our neighbors as ourselves.

         It is especially important that we confess our sinfulness, if possible, even the minutest details of the sins we have committed. More importantly, let us go before the Lord and be honest in what ways have we failed God and ourselves?

         Because we can't run and hide from God, we should not go to the confessional and do our usual way of sugarcoating our sinfulness. We're used to denying our sins, minimizing them, excusing them, blaming them on others.

         This Lent, let's examine ourselves, ask God to search our hearts. As we go before God we in fact benefit from confessing our sins, our needs, and losses, and failings. Let us then gather the courage to admit before God that only by his grace and guidance can we find healing and help because only in Jesus can we find the healing that we seek.

         Today let me encourage you to go back to that time when we were in the Discipling Program and recall the Examen that we used to do. Ask the Holy Spirit to search into the deepest recesses of our hearts so that we can see ourselves in the way God sees us. Let us be reminded of our anointing so that we can respond to the call to New Evangelization. Let us all choose to be brave by bringing Christ into the world. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 15, 2026)