‘Healing the Blind Man,’ Vaclav Manes. (Credit: Screen capture.)
This Sunday, the Church comes to the middle of Lent. She marks the occasion by calling for a small pre-Easter celebration of joy. Today is called Laetare Sunday in Latin, with the word laetare meaning “rejoice.” And so, today is “Rejoice Sunday.”
Are we rejoicing? What are we supposed to be rejoicing about?
The entire Lenten season points us to celebrating and re-living the Paschal Mystery, namely, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In order for us to live this mystery, we must cooperate with grace and let it draw us closer and closer to the Lord. The spiritual tradition of the Church calls this the purgative way.
We can see an example of the purgative way in the blind man in today’s Gospel reading. The man goes from calling the Lord “the man called Jesus,” to “a prophet,” to recognizing him as “the Son of Man.”
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