So we are now in that fourth week of the Lenten season.
It’s better than halfway over.

It’s a time in which the Church invites us
To pray and to fast and to do acts of kindness.

To pray—which is an inward relationship.
To fast—which is also an inward relationship
With ourselves and with our bodies.

And then to do acts of kindness.
To go out of ourselves and to enhance and make better
The world in which we live.

Prayer and fasting and acts of kindness
Are the pillars of the Lenten season.

So as reading this Gospel passage,
I couldn’t help—this little tune kept coming in my mind.

Now, you all know Father James Wallace.
He now is singing at our TV Masses.

I don’t have that talent, but I’ll hum a little bit.
One of my favorite ditties.

∫ Day by day. ∫
∫ Oh day by day. ∫
∫ O dear Lord, there are three things that I pray. ∫
∫ To see thee more clearly. ∫
∫ To love thee more dearly. ∫
∫ To follow thee more nearly. ∫
∫ Day by day by day. ∫

Now that’s my best singing rendition.
And all of you are familiar with that little ditty I just said.

It comes from Godspell.
The desire to draw closer to the Lord,
Day by day by day in our own lives.

In the Gospel today—it’s a complicated Gospel.
We see the very best in humanity
And we see the very worst of humanity.

Here is a man who was born blind,
Through no fault of his own.

There was part of the tradition that said,
If someone was born blind or with a deficiency in life,
That they must have been a great sinner
Or the parents were a great sinner.
Someone in the family was a great sinner.

How absurd.
How ridiculous.

Here’s a man who was born blind.

And Jesus, out of compassion—the word compassion means
To journey with those who struggle with life—
Sees him and goes and heals him that he might see.

Not just see in a physical way the world around him,
But to see in a spiritual way that God loves him dearly,
And wants him to participate in the fullness of life.

This wonderful gift of sight that physically
Allows him to see, but also the gift of faith
That draws him into a deeper
And more loving relationship with God.

The God of love and the God of compassion.

∫ Day by day, day by day, ∫
∫ dear Lord, three things I pray. ∫
∫ to see thee more clearly, to love thee more dearly, ∫
∫ to follow thee more nearly, day by day by day. ∫

What a wonderful little tune or a little ditty, as I would say.
What a wonderful prayer for us,
Particularly during this holy season of Lent.