As long as it is day

(To the Sources)

‘… As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.…’ (John 9:4)

From John 9:1-49 (Year A: Lent 4)

Talk of night, day, light, darkness, seeing, blindness, etc are common in the Gospel of John. The reader has to think, read and pray behind the surface of what is being said.  A slice of 49 verses from the 9^th Chapter for this Sunday reading would be challenging for someone like a reporter or blogger. The Chapter reads like a running argument involving a blind man, a Prophet/Healer, the religious authorities, the family of the blind man and a crowd of bystanders thrown in. An executive summary might run like:

• God reigns
• People matter
• Faith works

And there we have it. 

Except that the story carries implications for us now. ‘As long as it is day’ suggests two things: today is the only certainty we have and our opportunity to walk in the light any day including tomorrow is therefore time bound.  Sometimes, religious folks worry about the ‘day after today’ as in ‘life after death’. They might be advised to take Jesus’s example and attend to ‘life before death’ and live in the Light that Jesus lives by. That way death will lead to life, blindness to sight and the ‘night will be as clear as the day’.