03/22/2004: "Thoughts on Sunday's Gospel reading"

I had another weekend that was too enjoyable to be interrupted by a bunch of blogging so my regular Sunday reflections will have to be done today. I decided to focus on the parents of the blind man in my Quote of the Day because I think they often get lost in the context of the rest of this story in the Gospel of John, chapter 9.

When is the last time you heard of a trial here in the US where the parents of the accused person didn't proclaim their child's innocense? I can't think of a singular case. In fact it is such a trend that the parents testimony is as of little credibility as that of the accused. So what was it about the Pharisees that scared the parents of the blind man into giving such an illusive answer to their questions? They basically told the Pharisees, "Go ahead and kill our son, just don't associate him with us. If he wants to hang himself, that's his problem."

Or maybe they weren't so afraid of the Pharisees as they were of their son. Here was a boy who was most likely always a burden who all of a sudden is proclaiming that Jesus was a Prophet. That may have scared them too.

In either case, I think it is an unfortunately wonderful example of how easily we'll run and hide when our faith is put to the test and that we're even faster to run and hide when we are asked to stick up for the faith of our friends and family. Instead of listening to our friends and family who we've always trusted, when faced with something difficult in the matters of faith, we abandon our usual compassion and tell them 'live and let live'. "Don't get me tangled up in your web, I'm comfortable where I am."

May the blind man's parents be a reminder to us of how important it is to live within a faith community and to be one with those in that community when the difficult moments of faith come our way.