Due to the Corona virus quarinteen this Mass was recorded for all members of the parish and the world.
The mass must be celebrated in seclusion.
Mass at 4th Sunday of Lent Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania.
Homily for the 5th. Sunday of Lent Cycle A
By Fr. Frank Karwacki
We are here in an empty church because of th Covid-19 virus and we pray for it containment and for those whom died from it or are ill because of it today with me in the church we find only Sam Scicchitano and his son Sam the 5th who are allowed in because they are the technicians recording this for you-tube. We thank you very much for making this available to be viewed by many.
In the first reading today from 1Samuel the Lords sends the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem to choose from his sons the next king of Israel because King Saul was a failed and disobedient king. Samuel thought Jesse’s son Eliab would be the one because he was tall and strong but he was not the one. Jesse presented 7 sons to Samuel in the same way and they were all rejected by God. Then Samuel asks Jesse if there are any other sons. Jesse says, “Yes, David he is out in the field tending the sheep. Obviously Jesse didn’t think he would be a qualify to be anointed the king but the Lord chose David to be the new king, Obviously Jesse and Samuel were spiritually blind to whom God would choose. St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians in our second reading today says,”You were once darkness but now you are light in the lord”. We often describe someone who doesn’t understand something as being in the dark. There is an intellectual blindness and there is a spiritual which both Jesse and Samuel exhibited in the first reading today.
In the Gospel of John today the man born blind is healed of his blindness by Jesus but also his eyes were opened spiritually to see Jesus, the Light of the World. His spiritual eyes were opened to believe that Jesus is Divine because it says that he ended up worshiping Jesus.
We might think that the man born blind received two healings. He got his physical sight back and his spiritual blindness was removed. Actually he had receive a third healing from Jesus which was really his first and most important healing. Remember the controversy that was swirling around him spurred on by the Pharisees which even the disciples of Jesus believed? The controversy centered around the false belief and obviously totally erroneous belief that an illnesses and disabilities were the result of the person’s sins or that of his parents. This is outrageously false. The man born blind’s first healing occurred when while he was still blind and heard Jesus say, “It was not his sin or that of his parents but it was to show God’s work in him”. Imagine how relieved he was to hear those words from Jesus! All those years he believed he was being punished by God but now all that guilt was lifted from him.
We, who can see physically, have natural sight but it can be at times be a “worldly sight” looking through the lens of our materialistic and secular values. Samuel was just using his natural sight when he incorrectly wanted to choose Jesse’s son Eliab because he was impressed by his stature and looks but God “sees in the heart’ while natural sight looks at the appearance.
We pray that with the help of the Holy Spirit that we will have our spiritual blindness removed and see everyone and all things and situations through the eyes of Christ.

All music used with permission
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