Catholic TV Mass Online March 19, 2023: Fourth Sunday of Lent

Presider: Fr. Brian Walker, O.P.
Parish: Dominican Friars
Choir: Heart of the Nation

TEXT FROM THE GOSPEL AND HOMILY

The Lord be with you. And with your spirit.

A proclamation of the holy gospel according to St. John. Glory to you, o Lord.

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam" which means sent. So he went and washed and came back able to see. His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, "Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?" Some said, "It is," but others said, "No he just looks like him." He said, "I am." They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a Sabbath. So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes and I washed and now I can see." So some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath." But others said, "How can a sinful man do such signs?" And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again, "What do you have to say about him, since he opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet." They answered and said to him, "You were born totally in sin, and are you trying to teach us?" Then they threw him out. When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, he found him and said, "Do you believe in the son of man?" He answered and said, "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he." He said, "I do believe Lord," and he worshiped him.

The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we are given the challenge to open our eyes and to really look at the world around us. The Lord is at work. But so is the evil one. In the gospel today we hear this reading of the man born blind and how Jesus cures him on the Sabbath. Jesus gives him instructions and he goes off exactly what Jesus tells him to do with blind faith. He has not seen Jesus. But he does what he says and he is given his sight. Later, when he meets Jesus on the road, he does not recognize him because of course he's cured afterwards. He rejoices in the fact that he has now come face to face with this son of man. None of us have ever seen Jesus. There are those of us who try to imagine just what Jesus might look like. But the truth of the matter is, not a single one of us would recognize Jesus if he came up to us on the street and tapped us on the shoulder. We wouldn't recognize him. Just recently I returned from the holy land. And while we were there we went into Bethlehem which is Palestinian and while we were there we had a special guide from there to get on the bus and start to explain different things to us. And we all looked at him and said wow. Very nice. Hopefully he'll be able to speak English clear enough for us. He did! And his name was Jesus. We were all struck because everybody said well you don't look like Jesus! But what do we expect Jesus to look like? We have to be willing just like the blind man to trust in the promises of the Lord. We have to be willing to trust that the Lord will always lead us in the right direction. Someone said to me once that and I was very surprised to hear it as we are talking so much about different people and different ethnic groups, and the man came up to me and said, "I truly believe that the sin of racism is rooted in the fact that we find ourselves all of us being created in the image of God, not trusting in the image that God has set before us. During this Lent let us try to open our eyes to the fact that the Lord is all around us. Not only in the trees the plants, the clouds, the winds, maybe even the snow, but especially in the people that have been given to us each and every day. Amen.

Entrance: Take Up Your Cross
Text based on Matthew 16:24–28. Text and music © 2014, Jaime Cortez. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.

Psalm 23: The Lord Is My Shepherd
Text © 1969, 1981, 1997, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Music © 2016, Sarah Hart. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.

Preparation: The King of Love My Shepherd Is
Music: ST. COLUMBA; trad. Irish melody. This arrangement © 2016, Kevin Keil, ASCAP. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.

Communion: Behold the Lamb
Text: Martin Willett, b.1960, alt.
Tune: Martin Willett, b.1960; acc. by Craig S. Kingsbury, b.1952
© 1984, OCP

Sending Forth: In These Days of Lenten Journey
© 1997, Ricky Manalo, CSP. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.

Mass Setting: Mass of Renewal
Text © 2010, ICEL. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Music © 2009, Curtis Stephan. Published by OCP. All rights reserved.

Permission to podcast/stream the music in this liturgy obtained from ONE LICENSE, License No. A-718591.
www.HeartoftheNation.org

Видео Catholic TV Mass Online March 19, 2023: Fourth Sunday of Lent канала HeartoftheNation