March 17, Fourth Sunday in Lent Feast of St. Patrick, Jn 9/1-41

1 Background

If there is some reason to think that last Sunday's Gospel was a one-act play that some of the very early Christians staged, there is much more reason to believe that today's story of the man born blind is an early example of theological drama. It would be a mistake, however, to read it merely as an expression of sorrow by early Christians who had been thrown out of the synagogue to which they felt they belonged because there was no incompatibility with synagogue membership and following Jesus. It is also a drama about the qualities it takes to see and to see through human phoniess wherever one encounters it. If it were not for phonies (that is men to whom power and institution meant more than religion) on both sides, the tragic separation of Church and Synagogue might never have happened.

2 Story

Once upon a time there was a woman who was a cynic. Even as a little girl, she was suspicious of everyone and trusted no one. Every body, she figured, had an angle, a hidden agenda, a trick up their sleeve. Someone told her when she was fourteen that she was a paranoid. To which she replied (with William Burroughs whom she hadn't read), "A paranoid is someone who is just beginning to understand how things really work." Whenever anyone did anything nice for her she suspected that they were trying to exploit her. She knew that gifts and compliments were based on some terrible secret motive. People claimed they loved her, but she really didn't trust them. Well, eventually she married a very nice man and had a very nice family, all of whom claimed to love her and praised her on every possible occasion and showered her with gifts. She thought it was all part of a conspiracy. But as cynical and ungrateful as she was, they weren't turned off, because, you see, except for her cynicism, she was really a very nice person. Finally on her death bed, surrounded by children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, she finally admitted, "Well, I guess you did love me after all."