[00:00] Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever. Today we celebrate what is known as Laetare Sunday, and that word comes from the Latin for rejoice. It is the beginning of the entrance antiphon, which we did not recite because we sang a hymn, and it's taken from St. Paul, "rejoice."

[00:35] "I say it again, rejoice." Now why rejoice? Why the lighter colored vestments, the rose vestments, et cetera? Well, we're halfway through Lent, and if we have followed our Lenten resolutions, well, if we are doing what God wills us to do, then we are; our eyes are being opened. This is what we see here in today's Gospel passage, well, it's kind of throughout our liturgy.

[01:08] We are no longer blind; we are; we can see. Now again, I can repeat almost every Sunday, but when we look at this, our Lord speaks in human terms so that we can understand, but we have to look at it on spiritual terms, right? Otherwise, we'll get thoroughly confused. When our Lord is, when our Lord cures the blind man, now one of the key points is that

[01:40] it's done on the Sabbath. Most of our Lord's miracles were worked on a Sabbath, which by Jewish law was a day in which you could not work, given to the Jews, because as we see in Scriptures, on the seventh day, our Lord rested; God rested from all His creation, so on the seventh day, which corresponds to our Saturday, it was a day of rest. We also have to understand what that means by a day of rest, and that comes into play

[02:13] here too, as we see today, but noting our Lord worked most of His miracles on the Sabbath, and they were almost always the reward of faith, all right? In some way, the blind man presented himself to our Lord, acknowledging his faith in Him that He could cure him. We don't see that in the Gospel passage today, but that he actually asked for the miracle,

[02:44] but it's likely he did. And God, and our Lord, well, He makes a point here of why He does what He does, where first of all, of course, it is He who's given us the law, and as we're going to see, it's the law given through Moses. So in a certain sense, the Pharisees were right, but not completely, and the biggest thing is they were refusing to believe in our Lord, to believe that He is who He says

[03:21] He was, and because He is who He is, He was able to work these miracles. That is, well, He calls Himself the Son of Man here, because He's truly human, but He is also God, not only from God; He is God, and therefore capable of working those miracles. Nobody else would be, but He, because He is God, is capable, and thus did so, also showing

[03:54] that it is He who gave that law, and He is not abolishing the law, but He's fulfilling it. Now here, to understand how He's fulfilling, we have to understand what this meant by not working. It doesn't mean not lifting a finger, not even to help somebody in need; it doesn't mean we just sit and do nothing, literally; we can't even raise a finger, nothing. That's the way the Pharisees were interpreting it, and they certainly didn't fully live up

[04:28] to that either, but still, it doesn't mean that, but it does mean we set aside our regular, what we call servile work, anything that's tedious, that will wear us out, because we need a time of rest, in order to prepare ourselves for the week coming, the upcoming week, where we will have to work. But also, it's a time, but it doesn't mean we don't help those in need, that we can do.

[05:02] Whatever we need to be able to help others in need, to take care of ourselves, literally, well then, it doesn't mean we refrain from all of that, but we take, and for us, of course, it's Sunday, not the Saturday, but Sunday, because that is the day the Lord rose from the dead. It is also the day we also, it is also dedicated to the Blessed Trinity, to remind ourselves of that mystery, which we can't fully understand, of course, but in fact, you've got one God,

[05:36] three persons, the Trinity. Anyways, so we celebrate on Sunday, and all right, we rest from our regular work, but that doesn't mean we just sit, and so our Lord is making these points here. The other thing here is a very key point; note the question that's asked when our Lord does work, when they see the blind man, who's, who's sinned, was it the parents, or was it he himself, the blind man?

[06:09] That was a belief of the Jews at that time, that if you had some malady like that, it's because you sinned, and our Lord is pointing out, well, He actually explicitly answered the question; neither of them sinned, neither the parents nor the son; neither of them sinned, our Lord says; "I do; he is that way so that I can show you who I am," and, oh, it's on

[06:48] the other page; anyways, it's a longer Gospel today, but to show that He is in charge, that our Lord is God, and it's through that power that He can work these miracles, and that He's not abolishing the law, but fulfilling it. What's important here is we do His will, the will of God, and if we do, then we are no longer blind, even if we are physically blind, but spiritually we are not, and we are doing His will; we are; we can see; we see and place our faith in God, and that's what sin

[07:30] does to us; sin, which it did to the Pharisees, sin blinds us to even the will of God, cuts us off, right; well, if we keep sinning, if we keep doing, keep doing, we get to the point where we don't even recognize that we are sinning; the very problem in our world today; how many can even recognize they are sinning, yet they are turning away from God,

[08:06] and our Lord; what our Lord is calling us to do here; turn back to God, give ourselves to Him, do His will, stop sinning, and we will see once again, and we can then say, "I believe in You, Lord; I seek You; I love You, because You love me," and that is a cause for rejoicing, because we can find nothing greater than to be with God; nothing greater,

[08:49] that's what we must always seek; His will, not mine; His will; God's will, and then, we do see clearly; much more clearly; we will see clearly; the love of God for us, and we will seek nothing more; we can't seek anything greater, and that is; I repeat; a cause for rejoicing; praise be Jesus and Mary; amen, amen.

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