4th Sunday of Lent
15th March 2025
Lectionary Readings: 1 Sam 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6;
Eph 5:8-14; Jn 9:1-41
The liturgy of this Sunday teaches us, among many other things, an important aspect of God’s methodology regarding the history of salvation. The first reading (1Samuel 16:1-13) contemplates God’s choice of David to unify the scattered tribes of Israel and centralize them in the Land of Israel, Jerusalem, where Solomon would build the Temple, which would be the dwelling place of the Shehina (presence of God) in the midst of the people of Israel and in the midst of the world.
We have the anointing of David. Firstly, this act of anointing signifies empowering someone for a special function or mission. Its Hebrew origin (Mashiah = משיח), which in Greek was translated as Kristos (κριστοσ), and in latin Unctos, indicates, above all, anointing with oil. However, the sequence of the anointing of David, the anointed one (Messiah), which developed in the tradition of Israel throughout the first and second Temple periods, will be affirmed from the Davidic model, anointed by Samuel, which we read about today. The Messiah of the family of David, as awaited, must unify all the people of Israel and liberate them from the forces that prevent them from serving God, but at the same time, he must cause all nations to recognize the God who reveals himself to Israel and serve him as the One and Unique God.
The Gospel reading (John 9:1-41) finds its understanding in this context of the Messiah from the family of David. He presents himself from Israel to the world. Jesus is in Jerusalem, in the context of the celebration of Sukkot, which John, in Chapter 7, introduces as Jesus celebrating the feast that symbolizes the eschatological feast where the liturgy was celebrated for 7 days, during which the entire community of Israel was on pilgrimage in Jerusalem, concentrated in the space between the Temple and the Pool of Siloam. Two elements strongly marked this feast: light and water. The Mishnah Sukkah 5:1 says: “He who has not seen the joy of the gathering of water at the fountain (the Pool of Siloam) has never seen joy.” And subsequently, the same Mishnah 5:3 says: “There was no courtyard in Jerusalem that did not shine with the fire (light) of the gathering of water.” That is, Israel celebrated the concrete or anticipated presence of the kingdom of heaven. God, through water and light, made himself present to the community of Israel. During those days, the community of Israel experienced Heaven on Earth.
It is in this context that we read: “On the last day of the festival, the great day, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37). Following this, John completes the meaning with the other significance of the festival: “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
In today’s reading, Jesus is situated within this eschatological reality, and John wants to teach that this eschatological period has arrived for all humanity. The Messianic Project, which begins with David and his anointing, reaches its fullness in the affirmation of Jesus as the Messiah of the house of David. The healing of the man born blind takes place at the Pool of Siloam, where Jesus sends the blind man to wash himself, according to the norms of the Torah. This is the same place where, during the festival of Sukkot, which is the context of the event, God manifests himself as living water and eternal light. The described gesture of Jesus healing him with clay, the same earth used in the creation of the first man, now represents the birth of humanity that did not see God. As Paul teaches, addressing the Gentiles: “You who lived in darkness” (Ephesians 5:8-14), that is, without God and without the power to see. The healing represents opening eyes to faith in God who reveals himself to Israel, the only creator of all things, to whom humanity has access through Jesus, the Anointed One (Mashiah) of God.
This week’s Sunday Liturgy Commentary was prepared by
Elio Passeto, NDS,Jerusalem–Israel, Director
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