Forms That Ask the Wrong Questions
Updated: Sep 5
“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents.”John 9:2–3
The page is full of boxes. Tick here. Write your answer on this line. The questions look official, but they do not quite fit the life of the person in front of you.
You fill them in anyway. The system needs the form. Without it, nothing moves.
Jesus was asked questions that missed the point. People wanted a simple cause and a neat answer. They asked whose fault it was that a man was born blind. Jesus would not accept that question. He saw the man, not a box to tick.
Forms have a use. They help a large place keep records. They cannot tell the whole truth. They rarely ask what matters most: Are you afraid? Who do you love? What are you waiting for?
Complete what is required. Then look up. Return to the person the paper cannot fully hold.
At Mass, God does not meet us with a questionnaire. He speaks in Scripture, and he gives himself in Holy Communion: Jesus present for us under the appearance of bread. We are not asked to sum up our lives in five lines. We are asked to come as we are.
If you are waiting for someone to see more than the form, you are not waiting alone. Jesus stays with the person the system can only partly describe.