In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen but so what? What does that have to do with me?
Christ takes the clay and creates eyes for the man born blind—he completes the Creation started in Genesis—and the man can see. And he, here today, gives each of us new vision too. Christ gives to you and to me a new ability to see the world, to see each person as bearing the image of God, to see creation infused with the Spirit of God. The man born blind could not stop from telling all who would listen of what Jesus had done for him. He could have refused the clay or refused to go wash at the pool, but he accepted it and accepted Christ. He did not have all the answers, he had not studied Scriptures nor Church history, but he had an encounter with the living God and he was changed.
So, what does it mean to me that Christ is risen? It means not only that an historical event happened, not only that death has been destroyed, it means I am called to do something about it. The man born blind knew this, he knew that his healing would be incomplete, lacking: unless he went to the Pool of Siloam he would not receive his sight. Likewise, I too must do something about the Resurrection: I must repent.
It is easy in the Christian life to believe other people should change—all too easily I can see all kinds of sin elsewhere—but this is of no importance. I am the one called to change, I am called to repent, I am called to turn to the Lord. Never other people, only me. And when I do this—to the extent that I turn to the Lord—I participate in his Resurrection, I participate in life to its fullness, I participate in perfect love.
So many in our society today desire authentic experiences, yearn for Truth, and this is found most perfectly in the Truth proclaimed by the Church for nearly two millennia, that Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life. If I love my neighbours, truly love them, then the greatest act of love I can do for them is tell them of this Truth with the example of man born blind at the forefront of my mind.
If I love my neighbours, truly love them, then the greatest act of love I can do for them is tell them of this Truth.
My dear brothers and sisters, God calls us all to change: to be transformed and transfigured into his likeness. We do not need to know everything—the man born blind answered a question “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see.” We do not need to know everything but in our encounter today with the living God we are called to holiness, called to sanctity, called to become the human beings we were created to be.
Christ is risen!
To our risen Saviour be all glory, honour and worship, with his unoriginate Father and the All-Holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.