Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #209 031426: From Blindness to Sight: Jesus’ Miracle and a Call to Be Children of the Light
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
- 0:04teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
- 0:09lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
- 0:14And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
- 0:17Good evening, and welcome to Good News. I am Deacon Al Lundy.
- 0:21You're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio.
- 0:24And Good News is a program we air every Saturday and Sunday evening from 8 to
- 0:308.30, and we talk about the good news of Jesus Christ, what's going on in the gospel this weekend.
- 0:36So we look at the readings of the Mass, we offer a little bit of reflection
- 0:39on them, and hopefully there's something in there that will touch your heart,
- 0:44your mind, have some effect on your life and your faith.
- 0:47So we'll get started here. First, I always talk about weird things going on
- 0:53in my life, and there's always weird things going on in my life.
- 0:56My son just turned 38 this week. I can't believe it.
- 1:01Every day, something comes up that makes me feel really old.
- 1:04And one of them is my son turning 38 years old.
- 1:09Lives in beautiful, fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.
- 1:13Been out there for like 13, 14 years and doing really well, really proud of him.
- 1:19And going to go see him pretty soon, about a month.
- 1:22We'll fly out there and say hi to him. So we had that going on,
- 1:26the long distance birthday celebration.
- 1:29So we talk on Zoom at least every couple of weeks.
- 1:33My wife and my son and his wife all get together.
- 1:36We play long distance uno so they
- 1:40have a deck of cards they deal out we have a deck of cards we deal out
- 1:43and then we play uno i mean we're what 1500
- 1:46miles away from each other and we play uno
- 1:49for hours we'll do that for a couple hours as we chat about what's going on
- 1:53our lives and and so that was fun and so how much of this to tell so i have
- 2:01coming up in months not not this week not next week, but in like six months,
- 2:08I'm going to be having some surgery. I had some pretty big surgery.
- 2:11And so to get ready for that, the doctor thought it'd be a good idea if I lost a little weight.
- 2:18Not a bunch of weight, 50 pounds.
- 2:21That sounds like a lot of weight to me. Like a lot of weight.
- 2:24But he pointed out that it would make the surgery easier for him.
- 2:29It would make recovery easier for me.
- 2:32And so I agreed to do it. And I can lose 50 pounds. I've done it before.
- 2:36I think I've mentioned to you, John, that it's like a smoker who says,
- 2:41quitting smoking is easy.
- 2:43I've done it like eight, 10 times.
- 2:46That's how easy it is. Well, I've lost weight a dozen times or better.
- 2:51So yeah, can I lose 50 pounds? I can. I've done it. I've lost more than 50 pounds.
- 2:55A couple of years ago, I lost almost 70 and I kept it off for gosh,
- 3:01almost a year and then gained half of it back again.
- 3:06So, so I have to get rid of this weight. So this week,
- 3:10He started me on the synthetic hormone. Was it GLP or GPL? I think it's GLP.
- 3:17GLP-1. And I'm doing the pill, not the shot, not the stab.
- 3:24So it's a daily pill, first thing in the morning.
- 3:28Got to take it on an empty stomach, can't eat anything for 30 minutes.
- 3:32And it's basically an appetite suppressant. I've only been on it for a week.
- 3:36And I have to admit, it does suppress your appetite.
- 3:40When you're nauseous, you don't want to eat a lot. So they say this part, this will pass.
- 3:48That the feeling nauseous is just getting used to the synthetic hormone.
- 3:55And I can't wait for that day to come. I'm really looking forward to that where
- 3:59I can take it and just have the appetite loss and not the accompanying nausea.
- 4:05So what they do, in case you don't know, they put you on a very small dose for
- 4:10the first month to let your body get accustomed.
- 4:12You're not expected to lose a lot of weight the first month.
- 4:15It's just to start getting the hormone into your system and let your system start to adapt to it.
- 4:21Then the next month, they a little bit more than double it.
- 4:26So you start off at like 1.5 milligrams. That's what I'm on.
- 4:29And then next month, I'll be at four milligrams.
- 4:32And then you do four milligrams for a month, and then they put you on nine milligrams.
- 4:35So you jump from 1.5 to nine in 90 days.
- 4:40And that's when the weight starts coming off, so I'm told.
- 4:44So I'm trying to drop 40 to 50 pounds in six months.
- 4:48And I have not, once you get on this, you'll be amazed how many people you'll
- 4:52run into in your life who have been taking this that you didn't know.
- 4:55I have a brother who's been taking it for a year, didn't know.
- 4:59A couple of good friends of mine been on it, didn't know.
- 5:03So every time I turn around, I run into somebody else who's taking this thing.
- 5:06And they all love it. Once you get past the initial...
- 5:11Nausea. They all love it and it's working out great.
- 5:15And they said losing 50 pounds in six months, easy, easy.
- 5:20My concern is at some point you're going to hit a weight where you need to stop, right?
- 5:28How does that happen? I mean, they can't just take you off of this.
- 5:32It would make sense to me that if you're pumping a hormone into your body and
- 5:36suddenly you're not, your body starts screaming about where to go, you know?
- 5:42So I don't know how I'm getting off of it.
- 5:45I'll find out more probably in six months when I say, okay, enough's enough.
- 5:51How do I start tapering off on this? I have a feeling it's not something you get off of completely,
- 5:57but maybe you microdose or whatever to stabilize the weight because you can't
- 6:02just continually lose weight or otherwise you basically disappear.
- 6:07So that's what's new in my life this week, is getting used to the weight loss drug.
- 6:12I will admit, though, I'm not hungry, which is a good thing.
- 6:16I passed up cheesecake last night, John. Cheesecake.
- 6:21Normally, you'd have to fight me off with a club to keep me away from cheesecake.
- 6:26And I was able to look over and go, oh, look, there's cheesecake.
- 6:29That's nice. and walk away. And that's a big win for me.
- 6:34Now, I haven't given the ultimate test. The ultimate test is,
- 6:38of course, Oreos, right?
- 6:40If you want to know if you're addicted to food or not, a glass of milk and some
- 6:45Oreo cookies, that's pretty much, that's the test. That's the test.
- 6:51And I haven't tried it with Oreos yet, but we'll see. I did at breakfast this
- 6:56morning, I actually had decaffeinated coffee.
- 7:01Now, I've always thought of that as, what's the point? Exactly.
- 7:06And coffee nowadays is not cheap. I think where we went for breakfast was like
- 7:10three bucks a cup for something that doesn't have in it what you're paying the three bucks to get.
- 7:16And it's still, that's right. I think I might just have to switch just to water.
- 7:21But yeah, at least most water is free.
- 7:23And I was able to pass on the toast, which is very good. And I passed on the hash browns.
- 7:30That was big for me. Veggie omelet.
- 7:34I did a veggie omelet and I took part of it home because I couldn't finish it.
- 7:40So, I have to admit, as far as being able to control, curb the appetite,
- 7:47it seems to be working pretty well in only less than a week.
- 7:52So, you'll probably hear more from me in the future as there's less and less
- 7:57of me every month. I mean, that's the goal.
- 8:00So, I'll let you know how that works and how I'm feeling. But right now,
- 8:03it's like a really good batch of nauseous in the morning, which,
- 8:08like I say, is a great appetite suppressant.
- 8:11And other than that, gosh, what's going on? We've got OCIA happening at most
- 8:16parishes around the country.
- 8:19And our particular parish, we have 13 people who will be adults who will be
- 8:24entering the church this Easter at the Easter Vigil.
- 8:27And so we're into the scrutinies right now for last Sunday, this Sunday, and next Sunday.
- 8:32And so we'll be reading from John today as they're going through the second of the scrutinies.
- 8:39And i'm the i'm i'm the godparent
- 8:42i'm the sponsor for one of our ocia members
- 8:46a young man who i say young he's
- 8:49in his 50s for me he's a young man who i've known gosh since he got out of college
- 8:56i knew his dad for i've known his dad for over 30 years so it was i was really
- 9:03honored when he contacted me and asked me if I would be his sponsor.
- 9:07And so that's really exciting. I'm really looking forward to that.
- 9:11It makes Easter really special for me.
- 9:14This weekend, while I'm talking to you here, we've pre-recorded this program
- 9:19because this weekend I am on the team for Curcio, for a men's Curcio.
- 9:24And if you haven't been on a Curcio, I really, really encourage you to do it.
- 9:31It's a wonderful weekend. end, you'll find you'll have Curcio probably in your
- 9:37diocese, probably multiple Curcio centers in your diocese.
- 9:41It's C-U-R-S-I-L-L-O, Curcio.
- 9:44It's a Spanish word, which means short class, a short lesson.
- 9:48So a short course, right? So this is a short course in Christianity, and it's a lot of fun.
- 9:55It can be very impactful in people's lives.
- 9:59I've seen it have huge effect in just a few days in people's lives. So look into Curcio.
- 10:06I hope you'll do it. If you haven't already, it's just, it's a great,
- 10:10great weekend. So it starts Thursday night and Sunday evening.
- 10:14So as you listen to this, we're either wrapping up or wrapped up our weekend,
- 10:20depending if you're listening Saturday or Sunday.
- 10:23But I always love doing it. I've served on...
- 10:26I think this is my 30th team that I've been on. So, yeah, Curcio's been a big
- 10:32part of my ministry as a deacon.
- 10:35And I wouldn't spend that much time with it if I didn't feel it was really impactful.
- 10:41So that's pretty much me. We'll get to our readings after we hear from a few
- 10:46of our friends at the station, and we'll be back with more good news.
- 10:50You're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio.
- 10:52Stay tuned. Good news will be right back on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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- 11:31Happy 15th anniversary to the Catholic Spirit Radio Network.
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- 11:39Thank you for all you do on air, online, and in our communities.
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- 11:49continue to grow and share the Catholic faith. Greetings, everybody.
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- 12:09God bless you and grant you much support and continued success.
- 12:21Bye.
- 12:22Welcome back to Good News. I'm Deacon Al Lundy, a permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese.
- 12:28And every weekend on Catholic Spirit Radio, we talk to you about the readings
- 12:32of the Mass, of the Catholic Mass.
- 12:34And this is the fourth Sunday of Lent that we're heading into.
- 12:39And our readings are from the prophet Samuel, from the St. Paul to the Ephesians.
- 12:47I'm sorry, the Ephesians. And then, of course, we have the gospel according to John.
- 12:53And what I want you to think about as you listen to these readings is that God
- 13:00in the Trinity, the three persons
- 13:03of God, God the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, three persons, one God,
- 13:08change our lives.
- 13:10They are, as we said before, impactful.
- 13:13And so think about how God has changed your life or how God can change your
- 13:20life and how Christ will change your life.
- 13:23And so that's what we experience in these readings.
- 13:28So from the first book of Samuel, we read, the Lord said to Samuel,
- 13:34fill your horn with oil and be on your way.
- 13:37I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I've chosen my king from among his sons.
- 13:43As Jesse and his sons came to the sacrifice, Samuel looked at Eliab and thought,
- 13:48Surely the Lord's anointed is here before him.
- 13:51But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty
- 13:56stature, because I have rejected him.
- 13:59Not as man sees does God see, because man sees appearance, but the Lord looks into the heart.
- 14:06In the same way, Jesse presented seven sons before Samuel.
- 14:10But Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen any one of these.
- 14:14Then Samuel asked Jesse, Are these all your sons that you have?
- 14:19Jesse replied, They're still the youngest who's out tending the sheep.
- 14:25Samuel said to Jesse, Send for him. We will not begin the sacrificial banquet until he arrives here.
- 14:32Jesse sent and had the young man brought to them. He was ruddy,
- 14:36a youth handsome to behold, and making a splendid appearance.
- 14:40The Lord said, There, anoint him, for this is the one.
- 14:44Then Samuel, with a horn of oil in hand, anointed David in the presence of his
- 14:50brothers. And from that day on the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David. The Word of the Lord.
- 14:57So, as I said before, God changes people, huge changes, big changes.
- 15:02He's about to change David's life in humongous ways that are recorded throughout Scripture.
- 15:11He's going to become not only one of the great kings of Israel,
- 15:14but a man after God's own heart.
- 15:18And there aren't many people of Scripture that God says that of,
- 15:24but he holds Daniel very close.
- 15:27Even though Daniel is imperfect, as you'll read, he was responsible for the
- 15:33murder of the man whose wife he was coveting.
- 15:37And so this is an imperfect man, and yet God saw him as a man after his own heart.
- 15:44And you'll have to read that story to understand why and how David managed to
- 15:50repent after that incident.
- 15:53In our second reading, a letter from St. Paul to the Ephesians,
- 15:57Paul writes, Brothers and sisters, you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
- 16:04Live as children of the light, for light produces every kind of goodness and
- 16:09righteousness and truth.
- 16:11Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness.
- 16:18Rather, expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret.
- 16:24But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.
- 16:31Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
- 16:36and Christ will give you light.
- 16:39Once again, Paul's talking about these huge changes, being born in darkness,
- 16:44but now being children of light, the light of Christ, and how the light breeds goodness.
- 16:52Just being in the light helps to change people and be willing to expose evil
- 16:59so that others can see in the darkness what evil is brewing there.
- 17:04So it's better to be in light. And where does light come from?
- 17:08Well, Jesus tells us that he is the truth and the way and the light.
- 17:13So any lightness we bring into our lives, any goodness that we get in our lives
- 17:19comes from our exposure to Christ.
- 17:22In our gospel, this is the gospel according to John, it says,
- 17:28As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him,
- 17:32Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
- 17:37I need to stop there and explain that in the Jewish belief at the time,
- 17:42any kind of a malady, leprosy, blindness, being born crippled,
- 17:47anything that came from birth like that came because of the sins of the parents.
- 17:52And so the child was punished for the sins of the parents.
- 17:56Jesus answered, neither he nor his parents sinned.
- 18:00It is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
- 18:05We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day.
- 18:09Night is coming when no one can work. And while I am in the world,
- 18:13I am the light of the world.
- 18:14When he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva,
- 18:18and smeared the clay on the eyes, and said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam.
- 18:25Which means sent. So he went and washed and came back able to see.
- 18:30Now his neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said,
- 18:34Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?
- 18:37Some said, It is. But others said, No, it just looks like him. He said, I am.
- 18:44So they said to him, How were your eyes opened?
- 18:48And he replied, The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told
- 18:53me, Go to Siloam and wash.
- 18:55So I went there and washed and was able to see. And they said to him,
- 19:00Where is he? He said, I don't know.
- 19:03They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees. Now Jesus had made
- 19:08clay and opened his eyes on a Sabbath.
- 19:11So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.
- 19:15He said to them, He put clay on my eyes and I washed and now I see.
- 19:20So some of the Pharisees said, this man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.
- 19:26But others said, how can a sinful man do such signs?
- 19:30And there was a division among them. So they said to the blind man again,
- 19:35what do you have to say about him since he opened your eyes?
- 19:38He said, he's a prophet.
- 19:41Now the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and gained his sight until
- 19:45they summoned the parents of the one who had gained his sight.
- 19:48And they asked them, Is this your son who you say was born blind?
- 19:53How does he now see?
- 19:55His parents answered and said, We know that this is our son and that he was
- 19:59born blind. We do not know how he sees now, nor do we know who opened his eyes.
- 20:05Ask him. He's of age. He can speak for himself.
- 20:09His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for the Jews had
- 20:12already agreed that if someone acknowledged him as the Christ,
- 20:16he would be expelled from the synagogue.
- 20:19For this reason, his parents said, He is of age, question him.
- 20:23So a second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him,
- 20:27Give God the praise. We know this man is a sinner.
- 20:31He replied, If he's a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know is that I was blind, and now I see.
- 20:39So they said to him, What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?
- 20:44He answered them, I told you already, and you did not listen.
- 20:48Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?
- 20:53They ridiculed him and said, You are the man's disciple. We are disciples of Moses.
- 20:59We know that God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where this one is from.
- 21:04The man answered and said to them, This is what's so amazing that you do not
- 21:09know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.
- 21:12We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if one is devout and does his will, he listens to him.
- 21:19It is unheard of that anyone ever opened the eyes of a person born blind.
- 21:24If this man were not from God, he would not be able to do anything.
- 21:28They answered him, saying, You were born totally in sin.
- 21:33You were trying to teach us? And they threw him out.
- 21:37When Jesus heard that he had thrown him out, he found him and said,
- 21:40Do you believe in the Son of Man?
- 21:43He answered and said, Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?
- 21:47Jesus said to him, You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he, he said.
- 21:54I do believe, Lord, and worshipped him.
- 21:57Then Jesus said, I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not
- 22:02see might see, and those who do not see might become blind.
- 22:07Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him,
- 22:10Surely we are not also blind, are we?
- 22:14Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin.
- 22:18But now you are saying we see, so your sin remains.
- 22:23The Gospel of the Lord.
- 22:25So where does this leave us? Well, again, we see Jesus doing huge changes in
- 22:31people, bringing sight to the blind.
- 22:34And in this case, the blindness is not just in this individual man who Jesus cured.
- 22:44The blindness is a sin that exists within the Pharisees.
- 22:48They have the chance to understand who Christ is. They have the chance to welcome
- 22:54this miracle that he's performed.
- 22:56And instead, they say, well, he can't do this. Only Moses could have done this.
- 23:01You know, we don't know who this man is.
- 23:04Every chance, the more evidence they see, the more they deny Christ.
- 23:08That's their sin. That's their blindness, is they are so stuck on their own
- 23:14traditions that they fail to see the completion of the scriptures that they talk about.
- 23:20And they've known since the days of Isaiah, for hundreds and hundreds of years,
- 23:25that the Messiah was coming.
- 23:27And Isaiah and Samuel and other prophets told them exactly what to expect.
- 23:33And yet, with Jesus standing in front of him, doing the things that the prophets
- 23:37said he would do, healing the crippled, curing the blind.
- 23:42They still don't see Him. They're so blind in their own sin,
- 23:46in their own selfishness, in their own self-centeredness, that they refuse to
- 23:52recognize God in their presence.
- 23:55So, Jesus is leaving them blind and curing those willing to see Him,
- 24:00willing to accept Him as the Christ.
- 24:03Their faith cures them.
- 24:05And in the case of the Pharisees, their unbelief keeps them in sin and in blindness.
- 24:13That's a good lesson for us. Where do we see Christ?
- 24:18Do we see Christ? Do we accept the existence of a loving God in our world,
- 24:24alive in our world, ready to change us, ready to help us, ready to forgive our
- 24:29sins, to cure our illnesses,
- 24:32our main illness that, of course, being of sin, do we accept that,
- 24:37or do we turn a blind eye to the existence of Christ in our world?
- 24:43That's really the question we should be asking ourselves this Lent.
- 24:47Where are we in our faith? Where do we hold Christ in our life?
- 24:51How clearly do we see Him?
- 24:54Are we children of light? Are we going to choose to stay in darkness,
- 25:00separated from Christ, separated from God? That's what the Lenten season is all about.
- 25:07And we have the teachings of the gospel.
- 25:11God left us the gospel through the apostles, through the evangelists,
- 25:16to help guide us back to Christ.
- 25:21It's not that far to go. It's a short trip from our head to our heart,
- 25:25and that's all we have to traverse.
- 25:28We just have to accept the gospel in our heart.
- 25:31We have to think it through in our head and see that this just makes sense,
- 25:37that what Christ did for us, what God did for us in becoming Christ in our lives, makes sense.
- 25:45It's a fulfillment of promises that have been around for centuries.
- 25:49And he's proven himself over and over again. And if you think about your own
- 25:53life, you can find the evidence in your own life of God being active,
- 25:59of Christ coming and changing things in your life for the better.
- 26:05Think about that this Lent. Pray about it. Invite God into your life.
- 26:10Invite Christ to change you, to become more and more like Christ so that we
- 26:16can spend time with Him not only on this earth, but in the next life as well.
- 26:22May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
- 26:28Amen. You've been listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio,
- 26:33a program for teens and almost teens to better understand that the gospel of
- 26:36Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
- 26:39Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
- 26:44That's goodnews at catholicspiritradio.com.
- 26:47Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion. Thank you for listening
- 26:51to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.