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Weekly message
from Fr. Chris
4 LA - spiritual blindness
March 15th, 2025
Dear SPA Family,
Today is the fourth Sunday of Lent, known as the Laetare Sunday, which invites us to rejoice because half of the Lenten journey is already behind us. For this reason, it is to have a more joyful character, the color of liturgical vestments may be pink (rose color) instead of purple.
The midpoint of this liturgical season can be a good opportunity to ask ourselves some questions. How am I living Lent? Do I bring it up in family conversations? Do I come to church for Mass or parish events? Do I use radio, television, or internet broadcasts of masses or services to be able to strengthen myself spiritually? Do
I look at the Bible that is on my shelf or table or in my smartphone?
In this weekend’s Gospel, we read about the blindness of a man blind from birth and about the blindness of the Pharisees. Physical blindness is a very sad thing, especially if it is part of a person from birth. A blind man cannot enjoy watching the world around him, loved ones, blooming crocuses, and nature awakening to life. This is the kind of man Jesus meets and takes pity on him. He heals him and restores his sight. But Jesus wants to heal not only the physical eyes of the blind man. He wants the eyes of his heart to be healed as well. This mud that Jesus puts on his eyes is probably a symbol of everything that weighs on a man’s soul. Spiritual blindness is sadder than physical blindness. The Pharisees especially suffered from this disease. Those affected by it did not see the promised Messiah in Jesus.
The eyes of the heart can become blind through fear, violence, isolation, and sin. Then we see ourselves, other people, and the world in a negative way, we look with a gloomy look which speaks deep sadness, and sometimes even negation of life. Without opening our hearts to God, we can be spiritually blind for many years, we cannot see another person, and we cannot have the ability to be for others. Such blindness is pure selfishness, and lack of love. Then we can live the time of Lent like a spiritually blind man, without changing anything in ourselves, without letting God’s light into our heart, without seeking a personal relationship with Jesus, without deepening it through prayer, the word of God, and the sacraments.
Or we can live in spiritual blindness, immersed in our own infallibility - like the Pharisee in the Gospel - and not see the need to change ourselves. With such an attitude, a person becomes more and more spiritually blind, even all his life he can remain in the illusion and be convinced of his perfection. Spiritual blindness means closing oneself to the truth about oneself and living in delusions, it does not allow us to admit our dark and sinful affairs.
To get out of spiritual blindness, we need to open ourselves to Jesus and accept His light, which allows us to discover the truth about ourselves. Reading the Gospel, personal prayer, and the sacrament of penance are good ways to receive a new vision from Jesus. If we break with sin and open ourselves to the gift of new sight, we will see the beauty of our spiritual rebirth.
This opening to God’s light will help us to see better what God has given us, what He has planned for us, and what path He proposes to us today. Surely this is the only way in which we can find true goodness and happiness on earth, and thus reach full happiness in eternity. Will you be open to this gift? The choice is yours!
Have a blessed second half of the Lenten Season. Fr. Chris
3LA - temple of the Holy Spirit
March 8th, 2025
Dear SPA Family,
The Samaritan woman by the well was a person with a difficult baggage of experience. Jesus meets her at the stage of searching for a way in life. She was already living with another man, to be precise, with the sixth man. This proves that she sought at all costs to satisfy the deepest desire in her heart to belong to someone, to love someone, to be important to someone, to be loved by someone.
The number six is a symbol of incompleteness and unfulfillment. It is also a symbol of one’s search for happiness on his own, building happiness according to his own plan. This symbolism is also emphasized by the hour of the meeting. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at six o’clock. It is the noon hour when the sun is at its highest in the sky and people are looking for some shelter, looking for a way to quench the thirst that the heat causes. The Samaritan woman is unable to find on her own what she needs most - peace, love, meaning, and purpose in life.
How many of us live a lifestyle similar to that of the Samaritan woman? This applies to both women and men. It is building happiness based solely on our own strength: relationships that last for a while, or love that is based on desire. Drinking water from wells that do not satisfy the hunger for truth, meaning, and purpose in life. How often the water from these wells is poisoned and instead of the desired satisfaction of desires, it makes them addictive slaves - alcohol, sex, money, power, losing themselves in work without remorse.
After meeting Jesus, the Samaritan woman’s life changed. Let us note two aspects of this change. The Samaritan woman stops looking for water in the well she used to go to. A sign of this is leaving the vessel. The second aspect is the return to the village and the courageous testimony that she has met Jesus.
What is the message of this Gospel for us? Becoming a Christian means being born again. A new birth is a conscious, personal decision. The car will not drive itself, even if its tank is full. An alarm clock will wake you up in the morning, but it won’t get you up. In the same way, faith by itself will not awaken in our hearts. This is done by making a free and conscious decision to accept God’s law as ours and reject the lifestyle of sin.
Many people who consider themselves Catholic think that the essence of faith is to be kind to those in need, to go to church, to read the Bible, to be fair to employees, and to be active in church groups. This is not a misconception. But being a believer is above all a loving relationship with God.
This relationship was missing for the Samaritan woman before she met Jesus. Therefore, she saw no problem with the lifestyle she led. She thought she was a good woman. She wanted someone to take care of her. She somehow made ends meet in her life. She thought that was what happiness was all about. Until she met Jesus. Then she understood that faith is a loving relationship not with a lover, but with God.
Just as we cannot become a member of a family by giving generously but only by building bonds of love with our loved ones, we cannot become Christians by doing good deeds alone. We become children of God by being born into Christianity in God’s love. Being a Christian is accepting this love.
Children are like their parents because they share in their nature. It’s the same with us when we become part of God’s family. We become like God when we accept Christ into our lives and our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. This is what the Samaritan woman experienced when she met Jesus.
Have a blessed Lenten Season. Fr. Chris C. Copy