Pope contrasts increasing faith of the man born blind, increasing blindness of Pharisees

March 31, 2014

In his March 30 Angelus address, Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel account of the healing of the man born blind (Jn. 9:1-41).

“While the blind man gradually approaches the light, on the contrary the doctors of the law slip ever deeper into inner blindness,” Pope Francis said. The Pharisees “do everything possible to deny the obvious,” their closure to the light becomes “aggressive,” and they expel from the temple the man who was healed.

In contrast, the Pope added, the man born blind gradually comes to a fuller faith: he identifies the one who healed him first as “the man called Jesus,” then as “a prophet,” then as a man close to God, and then as the promised Messiah.

Noting that our lives are sometimes similar to that of the blind man, and sometime similar to that of the Pharisees, Pope Francis called upon Christians to “open ourselves to the light of Christ” and to repent. The Pope also urged those who heard his address to read John 9 when they returned home.

 

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Further information:

• Angelus, 30 March 2014 (Holy See, Italian)
• Pope Angelus: Be open to the light of Christ (Vatican Radio)