(This is for Cycle A, for the Second Scrutiny.  The scrutinies add time to the liturgy, and the gospel reading is quite long, so I kept the homily brief.  Last week’s mass was about an hour and 15 minutes!)

Most of us are familiar with the story of Saint Damien of Molokai – the Belgian priest who volunteered to minister to lepers in Hawaii, and eventually died of the disease. Several years ago, the writer Aldyth Morris adapted his story into a one-man play called “Damien” that is now performed all over the world. In it, there’s a moment when Damien explains to his bishop why he wants to be with the lepers and minister to them.

“The Catholic lepers,” he says, “are begging you to send a priest, one to live among them, to call them by their names, to be a father to them.” And he explains: “They must have one priest who belongs to them, to prove to them that God has not forgotten them. I want to be their priest.”

It’s a beautiful moment, and it tells us all we need to know about what motivated that great saint. But it also tells us something we all need to hear – an idea that is central to today’s gospel:

God does not forget us.

This reading from John touches on many themes – healing, conversion, light. But as our Elect this morning prepare to receive their sacraments, I want to focus on a detail that I find very moving, and one that I think is worth embracing – and even celebrating.

After the blind man has been given sight, he is utterly alone. He has been rejected by all those around him – the community, his religious leaders, his family. He’s literally thrown out into the streets. The man who was scorned when he was blind is scorned again, even after he’s been cured.

Scorned by everyone, that is, except Jesus.

In what I believe is the only instance like this in the gospels, Jesus goes to seek out someone that he has healed. And he reassures him that he has been given more than just sight.

The man is given consolation, and affirmation. He is given hope.

And in that moment, we are reminded of something wonderful: God does not forget us.

He is there for those who are rejected, mocked, dismissed. He is there for the outcast, and the isolated. He is for all of those whom the world treats like lepers.

He is there for those who are thrown out.

And to them, and to us all, Christ offers this ongoing miracle: light. Brilliant, bewildering light. And in that light we see what we have never seen before.

We see that we are not alone.

To the Elect preparing for your sacraments, this is a great foundational truth of our faith: God does not abandon us. He does not forget us. He goes looking for us when we have been thrown out.

The first reading from the Book of Samuel shows the surprising ways that God works. He chooses for His king a young and inexperienced shepherd named David – someone nobody expected. Not only did they not expect him to be king, he wasn’t even considered. They didn’t even invite him into in the room.

But that was the very one God wanted. He often wants those nobody else does.

The miracle in this gospel reading makes that point, too. It does it through a dramatic incident that involves healing, and banishing darkness. But it is also a miracle about Christ’s commitment to those he has saved.

And the message is one of abiding hope.

To anyone who has ever felt alone or unloved…

To anyone who has ever felt abandoned or betrayed…

To anyone who feels that they may not be pretty enough…or smart enough…or clever enough …or rich enough…

Remember the blind man who saw, and then believed, but was rejected by the world. The Son of Man went looking for him – and found him.

Because God does not forget us.

He is there for those the world has thrown out.