March 15, 2026 – Fourth Sunday of Lent

+ From the Gospel according to John (9:1-41)

As Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God might be made visible in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
Having said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. He anointed the blind man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). He went and washed and came back seeing.
The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he looks like him.” He said, “I am he.” Then they asked him, “How were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.” They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. The Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. Then they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?” He answered, “He is a prophet.” But the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight. And they asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know, and who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Then they called the man who had been blind again and said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “Whether he is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know, that I was blind, and now I see.” Then they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” They ridiculed him and said, “You are his disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is from.” The man answered them, “Why, this is an astonishing thing, that you do not know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone honors God and does his will, he listens to him. Since the world began, it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. They answered him, “You were born entirely in sin, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out.
Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he found him, he said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him; it is he who speaks with you.” And he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he knelt before him. Then Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus answered them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

The Word of the Lord