“NOT AS MAN SEES DOES GOD SEE…”

“As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.
His disciples asked him,
‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,
that he was born blind?’
Jesus answered,
‘Neither he nor his parents sinned;
it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.
We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. . . .
While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'” John 9:1-5

From Fr. Tim’s March 19, 2023 Bulletin column:

Among recurring themes in St. John’s Gospel is the contrast between light and darkness, and between blindness and sight. The realities are related: in order to see accurately, one needs light; but much depends on the health of one’s eyes.

As I write this reflection, I am scheduled for surgery late in the week, to remove a cataract from my left eye, so I am extra-sensitive to today’s Gospel imagery: I hope that by the weekend I will see with greater perception than has been increasingly the case. If all goes well, surgery on my right eye will take place April 3.

SURFACE SEEING

As the condition has grown acute, I notice that I can be quite certain that I am seeing things accurately, although I often discover that I am, in fact, not perceiving things as they truly are. St. John points out repeatedly not just the vulnerability of our eyes, but the weaknesses in our vision. In today’s account of Jesus’ encounter with “a man blind from birth”, John’s focus is clear: Jesus heals the man’s physical blindness, but uses the occasion to teach an important lesson about differences of vision. Jesus reminds us that even when we ‘see’ what is real in terms of objective data, we may miss the true meaning of what we ‘see’. The episode is about a man who is given the ability to see with his physical eyes, but also about the many who may possess the gift of physical sight, but do not ‘see’ the truth about Jesus. Even many with ‘sight’ sharpened by long study of the Scriptures failed to ‘see’ in Jesus the fulfillment of all they were ‘looking for’. It is vision guided by faith that penetrates beyond the physical attributes of Jesus, to ‘see’ in Him the One in Whom “the works of God” are “made visible.” Just as Samuel needed God’s grace to identify David, Jesse’s youngest son, as the one whom God had chosen to be king, so grace must assist our eyes to look past the ordinariness of Jesus in His human person, to see Him as truly the Son of God. And, as is said, “There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.” Let us ask God’s grace to help us always ‘see’ Jesus as our loving Savior.

Click here to continue reading Fr. Tim’s bulletin column.

Vision Guided by Faith: A Suggested Spiritual Exercise
“When we ‘see’ what is real in terms of objective data, we may miss the true meaning of what we ‘see’.”

Take some time this week to sit quietly and reflect on an encounter with someone that you had during that day or earlier in the week. Recall and try to relive the encounter in two ways. First, remember what you saw and heard and ask yourself: What of your part in that encounter arose from your usual viewpoint, i.e., from the way you have “programmed” yourself to “see”? Then, recall the encounter a second time, from the perspective of a “vision guided by faith that penetrates beyond the physical.” This is what Pope Francis is asking us to do when we see and listen to one another other – to listen with a hearing guided by faith, to see with a vision guided by faith – to train ourselves to fill our days with these Synodal moments of encounters where the grace of the Spirit in me and the grace of the Spirit in the other can change us from “seeing as man sees to seeing as God sees” – from being men and women living without God to men and women of God.

Sister Loretta