First Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7

Samuel’s prophecy marks the end of the era of judges for Israel and the introduction of the period of Kings. Against his better judgement Samuel anointed David, submitting in faith to the choice God made. In this simple act of anointing, the scene is set for the coming of Jesus who will descend from David. God is moving Israel through many acts of salvation which will ultimately culminate in him.


Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14

In the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius proposes that we approach prayer by asking ourselves what we truly desire, and then of God, what he desires of us. As we discern, the two should really correlate. Paul here advocates that we try to discover what God really wants of is. Living a life contrary to our deepest desires is living a life while sleeping. Now is the time to truly awaken.


Gospel: John 9:1-41

In true Johannine style, this Gospel reading plays skilfully with the concepts of light and darkness and sight and blindness. The blind man’s experience of Jesus is representative of the Christian faith and his journey to faith is the appropriate response of someone who has encountered Jesus. He is taken from darkness (blindness) to stating facts about Jesus but without having any real relationship with him. For the blind man, Jesus then becomes a prophet and when he meets Jesus a second time and really sees him for the first time, he worships him.
On the other hand the Jews and Pharisees have sight, yet they cannot recognise the divinity of Jesus, they do not “know where he comes from”.