Faith Is Not Blind
March 26, 2025
Fr. John Riccardo
Brothers and sisters: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.
Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the fruitless works of darkness;
rather expose them, for it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret;
but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light.
Therefore, it says:
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:8-14).
The operative words this coming Sunday, at least if we’re following Cycle A, are blindness, light and sight. As perhaps we’re aware, there are certain sets of readings that are to be proclaimed on the third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent. These are chosen because they help us understand what is about to happen in those who are soon going to be baptized at the great Easter Vigil. And what has already happened to those of us who have been baptized.
In selecting these readings the Church is trying to remind us that while baptism is a ritual, it’s not just a ritual. It’s not even a public ceremony whereby the person declares that they want to follow Jesus as His disciples. Oh, that’s true, to be sure. They are declaring their faith and in fact making an oath of allegiance to Him, very akin to the oath Roman men made when they became members of the Roman Legion. The focal point in baptism, however, and all the sacraments, is on God more than on the persons receiving the sacraments.
In other words, something happens in the sacraments. God is doing something in them. We aren’t passive in this process, of course, as we have to respond. We are, though, receptive. Perhaps better, we are to be actively receptive, with Mary as the exemplar of this kind of response.
What, then, does baptism do? The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to the Spirit and the door which gives access to the other sacraments” (1213). This is why the baptismal font is typically located at the entrance to the Church – it helps to visibly make the point that a person enters the Church through baptism. These weeks might be a good time to read the section in The Catechism on this great sacrament, not only so we can better celebrate with those coming into the Church but better understand what God has done for us who are already “inside.”
This week, though, it’s worth stressing one thing in particular, something that can help heal a distorted image many people have about being a Christian and having faith. It’s not uncommonly said that faith is blind. Uh, categorically, no. Faith is not trusting in something for which there is no evidence. That’s gullibility. And that’s not what it means to proclaim yourself a disciple of the eternal Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary; who suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, died, and was buried; who rose again on the third day and has ascended into heaven. Like anything in history, we who live now are dependent on witnesses who were there
then, and the all important question about those witnesses is simply this: are they credible? For anyone willing to do the work and be intellectually honest, their credibility far surpasses that of any other group of witnesses for any other event in history. We can leave that for another day, however.
Going back to the sacrament of baptism, the point this week is that baptism, and the faith that God gives through it, gives sight. Faith is not blind, rather it enables a person to see. It’s called a bath of “enlightenment,” because it gives access by the power of the Holy Spirit to things beyond what can be verified scientifically in a laboratory – which, oh by the way, is much of what matters in life.
Like the blind man who encounters Jesus in the Gospel this Sunday (cf. John 9:1-41), baptism moves us from blindness to sight, and from darkness to light. Those who refuse to believe, who refuse to honestly examine what God has done for us in Jesus, remain in darkness and blindness. And out of love, we should be eager to bear credible witness to them by our words and actions of the difference Jesus makes so that they too might walk in the light and come to know this astounding truth that is increasingly necessary in a lonely and anxious culture: God is Love, and the object of that love…is each one of us.
ACTS XXIX Prayer Intentions
March 2025
For Archbishop Edward Weisenburger, our new shepherd for the Archdiocese of Detroit, who was installed on March 18, 2025. Please pray for him and the entire archdiocese in this time of transition and his leadership in the years to come. St. Anne, pray for us.
For the lay leaders from across the country who will be joining us on campus for a Leadership Immersive, that their time with ACTS XXIX will bear fruit in their respective missions and lives.
For our partners across the globe, that God would richly reward them for the variety of ways their partnership makes the mission of ACTS XXIX possible.
For God’s protection upon Fr. John Riccardo and the ACTS XXIX family.
