A week and a half ago, during the closing Mass of our Parish Lenten Mission, Fr. Luke Fletcher spoke about Indiana Beach, the small, kinda tacky, amusement park in Monticello, Indiana, on Lake Shafer. And I was amazed at how many people have been there. I was talking about it afterwards with several of you, and chances are, that if you grew up in northern Indiana, at some point, you visited Indiana Beach. And in his homily, Fr. Luke was talking about working there, specifically, at working at Dr. Frankenstein’s Haunted Castle. And I remember that place. Fr. Luke was talking about the antics of the employees there, and how much fun they had in the Hall of the Giant Asian rats. And I remembered that room too. You see, when I was a teenager, all of my huge Italian family went to Indiana Beach one summer. And when we got there, two of my younger cousins wanted to go into Dr. Frankenstein’s Haunted Castle, but they were pretty young. Their parents didn’t want to go with them, so being the dutiful older cousin, I told them that I would take them. Now, one of them was about six and the other was about eight, at the time. We weren’t in the Castle very long, and I ended up carrying the younger one. There were lots of scary noises, and flashes of light, and skeletons everywhere. But the worse was that every few feet, they had something or someone jump out at you, and scare you. So we get to this Hall of the Giant Asian Rats, and something or some one grabbed at my eight year old cousin. And she freaks out. So I’m holding one cousin, and I’m trying to grab the other one to get her to stop screaming. And do you know what she does? She throws up. Later on, her mother, my aunt would explain to me that she always throws up when she gets scared. I was like, thanks for that information now. So I pick her up. And she’s still getting sick. She sick on me, and on our other cousin. And I’m carrying them both, praying and trying desperately to get out of the Hall of the Giant Asian Rats. And remember, this room is almost completely dark. Behind us, there was this family of four from Delphi, Indiana. And I hear their kids talking, “Man, this is the coolest Haunted House ever! There’s even slime all over the floor and walls.” They were playing in it. They thought it was all part of the show. This kinda gross story reminds us that when we’re in the dark, you never know what you are going to step into.

Today, our Gospel tells us the story of a man who was always in the dark. He was in the dark because he was blind. Everyday, he sat there on the side of the road, begging for help, in his darkness. One day, Jesus comes by. The blind man can’t see him. He’s not even sure when He is in front of him. And out of his darkness, the blind man cries out for help from Jesus. Little did he know, that this was the right man to ask for help. Jesus would not only help him to see with his eyes, but Jesus would also help him see with Faith. The blind man’s life and soul were changed forever that day. The darkness that had been all that he had ever known, gave way to the light. No more stepping in stuff that he couldn’t see.

We hear this story today and we’re happy for the blind man. It’s a happy story. For the vast majority of us, we can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to blind, to live in constant darkness. It is more than a little frightening. And yet, make no mistake about it, my brothers and sisters, Jesus comes to us today to cure our blindness too. We live in the dark more than we will ever know. Our situation is much more dangerous, because we think that we can see. We think that we know it all. We think that we’ve got it all down. When in fact, we are more blind to God’s truth, than what the blind man ever was. We live surrounded by the darkness of sin. Sin has become so strong in the world that we live in, that we are blinded by it and to it. We get all turned around. Right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right. So what’s the big deal about gay marriage? Why shouldn’t I live with my girlfriend or boyfriend before we get married? What’s wrong with having a little too much to drink? Why can’t I lie, if it keeps me from getting in trouble? Do you get it? We live in dark, crazy days. Today, in our darkness, you can step in something a lot worse than those people in the Haunted House did: you can step into Hell. It’s time that we all got our vision corrected. It’s time that we were all healed of our blindness. It’s time that we let Jesus open our eyes to the power of His truth, and live in the light. Like the blind man, Jesus wants us to see. He wants to heal us. He wants us to see where we are walking on this journey of life.

Don’t stay in the dark. It’s not the way that we are supposed to live. Mushrooms live in the dark, not people. The darkness of this world makes our Haunted Houses seem like child’s play. Get into the real light. Let Jesus help you to get safely home to Heaven, without stepping in something along the way.

God bless us all on this Fourth Sunday of Lent, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!