Mass readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent:
1 Samuel 16.1, 6-7, 10-13 Psalm 23.1-6 Ephesians 5.8-14 John 9.1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38
Today we rejoice because by faith in Jesus Christ we can see; “… I was blind and but now I see.” In Christ we see reality… for all its harshness, its dangers; we also see the beauty of creation and the good of others. And we do so not because of physical sight which can deceive, remember how the forbidden fruit was pleasing to the eye, but rather by spiritual sight that sees past the smooth words of the deceiver of this world, detects his guile. This sight is gifted to those who truly put their faith in our Lord; in his teaching, in his sacrifice, and in his continuing presence among us through the Word and the Sacraments.
Today we have a story from John’s gospel. Bible scholars often refer to the first part of this gospel as the “book of signs” because the miracles are “signs” that point us to deeper meanings. They aren’t just demonstrations of power.
So, for example, Jesus turns water into wine for reasons beyond helping at a wedding feast; and it’s not a party trick either. Giving closer attention to it one sees there’s more going on.
In today’s story of the man born blind receiving sight, Jesus makes it clear to us: we are to recognize the metaphorical quality of his actions. He says, “I came into the world… so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.”
He does give physical sight to one person; but this shows he has the more profound power to give spiritual sight to us all. Those who admit their need, and trust in God, are those who will be granted sight—just as the blind man was given both sight and knowledge by Jesus in response to his sincere faith. Those who are arrogant and presume they already know everything (think here of the Pharisees); their hearts will be hardened by the presence of Jesus, their own prejudices will keep them in the dark; but most especially their fear of Jesus as a threat to their power and prestige blinds them; their identity as the spiritual leaders of the people, the true champions of their cause—this will make them resistant to what is plainly real and true. Look at how they react to fact that a man born blind can now see, and that Jesus is the reason. They go into a rage and drive the man out of the city.
So, there’s no reasoned discussion, there’s no scientific investigation; rather, there’s denial of evidence, and bullying interrogation. The object is not the truth of what has happened, but the denial of reality and the attempt to cover it up.
Today we are in the midst of a cultural, political, social, religious struggle over what indeed is the reality of things, what is the truth of human existence, but also what is considered valid evidence, credible testimony, acknowledged authority. We have all been stunned by developments of late that seem to turn upside down all standards of evidence and authority.
And as I’ve said before, some of this scepticism toward those we’ve been taught to trust, taught to defer to, is understandable. However, this shouldn’t lead anyone to defer to those who claim to correctly divine the nature of humanity, and find that truth, for example, in the areas of race, sexuality, and gender. They do identify problems, reveal suffering, point out injustice, but their conclusions can’t be held to be correct just because they point out the reality of suffering. Jesus pointed out the suffering of humanity in his ministry; the Church has done so for two thousand years, the prophets of Israel did the same before Christ; but Christ and the prophets don’t agree with the secular prophets of today as to the cause.
Now you may be aware that Pope Francis has spoken out in the strongest of terms against what we call “gender ideology” and in doing so, he really is confronting the whole of this system of thought that has overthrown the universities and corporate boardrooms and many of the ruling cabinets of western nations. I would say that this ideology extends well beyond gender, sexuality and race, because it is a method of analysis that can be, and likely will be, applied to every area of human life. The method is striking for its flouting of the need for disciplined investigation, relying more on coincidences as proof; it ignores the complexity of human existence and offers simple answers, which in our collective experience, are usually wrong, or if in anyway correct, so lack depth that they’re anything truly helpful, but create more acrimony, bitterness, resentment. Yet it has its appeal because it plays to our instinct for compassion; but also our hunger for approval, for praise as people of compassion. Who does not love the champion of the downtrodden? That’s how the Pharisees wanted to be seen? That’s how all people who offer themselves for leadership want to be seen – they care, they know our pain. Those who actually relieve the suffering, and not just talk about it, have always posed a threat to the powerful and their agents. That’s why the rulers of Israel in Jesus’ day, that compact between the Herodian princes and the Roman Empire were happy enough to keep the Pharisees around – they were feckless, ineffectual, talked a good game but got nothing done; and so, were no threat.
What rests at the heart of these many so-called “critical” theories is a unifying concept. I’ve spoken of this before, that it’s all about power. Power is the control of another, the imposition of one will over another’s will; it is compulsion, coercion, threats of violence and violence. Those are the signs of power in the world.
We see in the gospels Jesus repeatedly refusing power over others. Instead, he exercises authority by teaching the truth, and insofar as he displays divine power, it is a pouring out of himself in service to others, to feed, to heal, to restore, even raise the dead. We Christians know what that divine power is, its love. The self-sacrificing love that gives all for the good of another; does not seek power over another, but hopes and believes that divine love can free them from the powerful of this world so that they may have a relationship with God and eternal life.
One of the central personalities in the development of this idea that power is the foundation of everything, and not love, was a French scholar, Michel Foucault. He was active from the 1960s through to the 80s, and trust me, his books are still read, and studied, people pouring over them as once university students read Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas.
Central to Foucault’s work was the concept of power-knowledge, in French, le savoir-pouvoir. It’s the idea that knowledge, science itself, is not some objective, neutral accumulation of facts that we can draw on to illuminate reality, but rather it is an establishment controlled by a few, and used to dominate society. And there is truth in this that has been recognized in the writings of T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, the Canadian scholars Harold Innes and Ursula Franklin.
Governments and corporations withhold information, they hire their own scientists to conduct studies to prove they are right. We all know this. They manipulate information, they try to discredit the knowledge of others. But what’s going on there is that these powerful entities are trying to hide the truth.
If you follow Foucault, and all his disciples down to today, what you discover is that’s not what they are on about: trying to hide the fact that a politician took bribes or a pharmaceutical company knew their most profitable drug didn’t really work is an instance of corruption. It’s more twisted than that. No, what they believe is that ultimately there is no higher truth to things, really no moral truth. Morality is artificial, it’s made up; it’s used to negotiate life among a lot of murderous, savage creatures who otherwise would be constantly killing, raping and pillaging each other. It’s also the product of a powerful few to manipulate us by defining what is knowledge, what is truth, what is morally acceptable. And this idea of power defining truth explains all our human institutions and conventions through time, things like monarchy, democracy, the Church, marriage, family, the concepts of sanity, moral depravity, and so on.
A simple example that you’ve all probably heard: marriage was invented by men to control women.
Now, there’s no evidence of this; no record of a council of men deciding this was the plan. And there’s a willful ignoring of the technological changes that came so quickly after the Second World War that meant that women didn’t need to be in the home most of the day, were now free to pursue education and careers outside the home. There’s a denial that for most of human existence men and women have needed to cooperate in the most efficient manner to ensure personal survival and survival of the species because life was incredibly hard up until very, very recently. Marriage sacralised the mutual commitment of a man and a woman that gave a family a chance, but not a guaranty, of success. For me to talk further about this, well, we would be here for hours exploring the institution of marriage because it is complex and its history complicated. It’s not something simply explained. But in Christian understanding, what is central to marriage, and the reason for its success is not because of a man’s power over a woman; rather, it is because the institution is founded on love – a life of mutual sacrifice for the other.
There are many people who reject marriage because they believe it disempowers women. Others look at it as they would any other contract: a power-sharing, power-exchanging agreement. The Christian weds because they want to offer themselves as a living and loving sacrifice that fulfils his or her vocation as a human person.
So, at the heart of these modern critical theories is a despairing cynicism. And the goal ultimately, as much as they speak of justice, it’s more about it being my turn to have the power, my turn to be in charge and for everyone else to be bent to my will. Look at the fear and confusion brought out by simply asking someone, “what is a woman?” – the panic is there as they do their best to either faithfully parrot the current line that defies reason, or to avoid giving an answer at all. The movement built on this philosophy of power smacks of revenge and retribution; but that’s what power does to people, it makes them jealous, grasping, hurtful and hateful. It leads to a profound blindness to the reality of others lives, reduces them to mere things that can used for one’s own satisfaction, creatures one can rule over, whose submission gives one a sense of power.
Michel Foucault’s life ended in a despairing indulgence in self-destructive habits of drug use and sexual deviancy. He eventually died from AIDS. One can see in widespread addiction, and the degeneracy of our current culture this fate writ large. However, not all can see this. We see daily political, cultural, and spiritual leaders celebrating it all, blind to the inner dynamic of power-seeking that will destroy society if it is not stopped. They are blind to the truth revealed in Christ Jesus.
Like the man born blind we are called to make this confession to the truth of Christ, and to say to him: “Lord, I believe”; and then rejoice that we can see.
Amen.