Humbly submit your will to God (Thy Will be done) and consecrate yourself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through Mary.

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, 
that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered,
“Neither he nor his parents sinned; 
it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.
Night is coming when no one can work.
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
When he had said this, 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.”
So they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”
He replied,
“The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes
and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’
So I went there and washed and was able to see.”
And they said to him, “Where is he?”
He said, “I don’t know.”

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.”

Now the Jews did not believe 
that he had been blind and gained his sight 
until they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
They asked them,
“Is this your son, who you say was born blind?
How does he now see?”
His parents answered and said, 
“We know that this is our son and that he was born blind.
We do not know how he sees now,
nor do we know who opened his eyes.
Ask him, he is of age;
he can speak for himself.”
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, 
for the Jews had already agreed 
that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ,
he would be expelled from the synagogue.
For this reason his parents said,
“He is of age; question him.”

So a second time they called the man who had been blind 
and said to him, “Give God the praise!
We know that this man is a sinner.”
He replied,
“If he is a sinner, I do not know.
One thing I do know is that I was blind and now I see.”
So they said to him,
“What did he do to you?
How did he open your eyes?”
He answered them,
“I told you already and you did not listen.
Why do you want to hear it again?
Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
They ridiculed him and said, 
“You are that man’s disciple;
we are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses, 
but we do not know where this one is from.”
The man answered and said to them,
“This is what is so amazing, 
that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.
We know that God does not listen to sinners, 
but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
If this man were not from God,
he would not be able to do anything.”
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,
the one speaking with you is he.”
He said,
“I do believe, Lord,” and he worshiped him.
Then Jesus said,
“I came into this world for judgment, 
so that those who do not see might see, 
and those who do see might become blind.”

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this 
and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin; 
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains. JN 9:1-41

Jesus reveals Himself last weekend to the Samaritan woman and this week to the blind man.  He is not just revealing Himself to the people in these Gospels, but to us today.  We have a sinful past and we are blind.  
“Not as man sees does God see, 
because man sees the appearance 
but the LORD looks into the heart.” 1 Sam 16:6-7
Jesus reveals Himself as the Light of the world.  The blind man has been living in darkness, but with light we can see things. There is no such thing as darkness, only an absence of light.  We choose to let Christ’s light into our hearts each day and live with Him or be selfish and choose our own path.  He died with arms open and head bent to kiss us welcoming us to His love and forgiveness every day.  His side gushes forth with an ocean of mercy.  It’s interesting how we like to stay in the darkness like the people of today’s Gospel.  Even when we can see very clearly that Jesus is the Light, we choose to stay in our sin, we choose to be selfish.  Why? Jesus asks us to do something that is very hard.  Change.  If we want to follow Christ, “we must deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow Him”.  We must worship “God or mammon”, we cannot love God and material things.  The rich young man went away sad because He had many material possessions.  Since light makes everything clear, if we bring ourselves to Jesus at the beginning of each day, He makes things clear for us.  He helps us set our priorities.  It is easy to get distracted, we need the Light, Jesus, to give us clarity.  The world or culture we live in glorifies sex, physical beauty, violence, being in a specific group, music that glorifies these things, wealth, and popularity. As a young person, this makes things look blurry as you are trying to figure out your identity.  Jesus teaches us that the marital act is the most sacred act between two people who have made a commitment to one another in front of God in His Church in a sacrament with vows which create two souls becoming one working to bringing forth new life and teaching kids to love God. True love is a decision based on knowledge, a self-gift, permanent, and life-giving.  This is Jesus on the cross.  We get so caught up in physical beauty and the sad thing is everything is photoshopped today.  Young women are starving themselves to look like an image that is fake.  Why cover up your natural beauty with make up?  We begin to cover up who we are at a very young age because we are trying to be like someone else.  Our video games are violent war games.  Young people watch so much violence today, they become numb to the fact that there are husbands, wives, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles, and cousins coming home in caskets with American flags draped over them.  Americans have made it into a video game.  This is sad.  Don’t get me wrong, I have played my fair share of video games, violent ones too, but we are forgetting to recognize our soldiers and veterans.  Video games and electronics have become time vampires spending hours and hours on these devices.  This leads to short attention spans, wanting everything to entertain us or it’s boring (including the Mass-the Mass is an encounter with the living God, doesn’t get more entertaining than that, actually it’s way better than entertainment it is complete fulfillment and joy), poor grades, and lazy people who don’t want to work.  The music we listen to and like has a good beat, but the words objectify woman, put woman down, glorify the marital act outside of marriage, cuss, glorify money, popularity, put others down, and glorify drugs and alcohol.  Why would a person who wants to get to heaven be listening to this darkness?  When you pay for this, it supports this person and their music.  I have dabbled in each one of these myself in my youth, but I challenge others not to be like me.  Jesus is calling you to be better.  Today, He is helping us to see things clearly.  If we come to Him, read about Him in the Scriptures, and dedicate ourselves to being more available to others, helping others, spending less time with our screens and more time in prayer, He will take away the blurriness and make things clear.  Isn’t this what every person who is wondering who they are, what is my purpose, where am I going, why do I look like this, what is the marital act, our bodies, and especially our souls about.  Come to Jesus for clarity, there are daily situations that make us unsure as young people and adults.  God created us and knows us better than we know ourselves, He wants us to know His will and wants us to see clearly with the Light of the world whom He sent to die for us, Jesus.  Invite Jesus into your morning with prayer so you can see clearly throughout the day.  Invite Him into every situation throughout the day.  Invite Mary into your day, ask for her intercession in your daily rosary (this defeats the Devil every time and makes things clear).  Invite the Holy Spirit into your life to guide you with wisdom, knowledge, fortitude, piety, fear of the Lord, understanding, and counsel.  Today, Jesus invites you and me to be with Him in the Light and to stop living in the darkness of our sins.  Lent is a time to come to the Light and rid the darkness from our lives preparing ourselves for the eternal Light, heaven.  

Today’s challenge: Rise each morning asking Jesus to help you see clearly.  Listen to the Light and stop listening to the darkness of our culture caught up in our electronic devices.  There is so much more happiness and clarity in the Scriptures and with people God has put around you to teach you about the Light.  Jesus invites you today to come to the Light!!!!  Be not afraid, be tough, and fight to change.

Be a servant, become a saint!
​#Christian YOLO