4th Lent See amazingly

One of the enjoyable activities around here is when we take a guest who has never been here before up to Tahoe and the Sierra up the mountain. It’s really enjoyable hearing their oohs and aahs at the mountains (or shrieks of terror as we go up Mt. Rose Hwy). Then there are those views of the lake itself. They are snapping photos, just awestruck. It’s enjoyable too because we can forget just how wonderful those mountains are, the Lake.

When we write papers or articles, or announcements for the mass; when we write, we clearly make some errors, but then we can find them, or at least the obvious ones. But after writing and reading and re-reading several times, we know what we have written, or wish to have written. But it takes fresh eyes to catch the incomplete thoughts, the typos, the grammar errors.

How many of us have been searching for something; like our glasses, our keys, our cell phones… we tear apart the house, can’t find them. Then we put our hands on the top of our heads, there are our glasses; we look at our hands, we were holding the phone the whole time. Sigh…

Our reality depends so much on how we perceive it, what we perceive. We can get blasé about life because we think it is the same thing over and over and over. We can miss out on quirks, because we are too comfortable. We can miss out because we become distracted, we have too much occupying our headspace. We can forget the beauty that is present right in front of our noses.

And we miss out on joys, and miss out on opportunities to truly engage in living and demonstrate the goodness we are all capable of.

A person I met years ago who has had some trauma; but also has a lot of financial security. This person was a curmudgeon; griping about most things; nothing ever satisfied; nobody satisfied; a person though who was well loved. People saw the potential within. Yet, this person only saw the troubles, only saw threats, only saw uncertainty. Seldom happy, and joy…I think was never really achieved.

God creates a beautiful world and universe. I have been awestruck by the Hubble Telescope photos and now the James Webb. Spectacular images of just how diverse and amazing this universe is. The James Webb especially has seen back in time further than we ever have before; and these images have shaken up the scientific world. Their models, their understanding of how stars and galaxies formed, and when have been shattered. They will have to go back and reassess.

Have we ever had to stop as well, startled by a new visión; new information; new perception such that our understanding of reality begins to fall apart?

It is painful, scary, exhilarating and liberating. God will do this for us and to us; because wants us liberated.

In the ancient days birth order meant everything. The eldest inherited the most, the youngest the least or simply nothing at all. When we read or hear of Samuel finding Jesse’s family and anointing David; this would have sent shockwaves to those reading it. What was God thinking! God shook up their reality.

Of course God also chose not the largest, not the most powerful of people to be a distinctive nation with the mission to know God and reveal God to the world. God chose slaves; the lowest of the low. God used them and called them up.

Jesus cures a man born blind. An amazing act in itself; but the story around him just adds to the fullness of what Jesus did. Right away he dismisses the idea the blindness was through the sins of parents or somehow this man: Reality change. Then people become shocked: How can this beggar be the same person, this never happens. They were not open to miracles. The parents of the man born blind, locked in fear; could not defend him. The religious leaders, locked into a narrow understanding of God, could not accept how something good could happen because it did not fit their own frame of reference.

The man born blind sees. He sees with his eyes, mind and heart. He sees Jesus as the revelation of God’s love; his reality forever changed. No more begging, no more fearing each day will he have enough. He can work, earn money, be a part of the community; find a wife, form a family. He has a whole new lease on life.

We have Scripture and we have Tradition that reveals to us Jesus, who is the fullness of revelation of God.  We Catholics have been gifted with so much richness in our Sacraments, in our grasp of Scripture, Liturgy, community, in our devotion: all as the means to be shaken in our lives to be able to see God, in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.

And we can become blinded to it; blasé about it; distracted from it; fearful of change too.

God only wants us to be lifted up, to be freed so as to live fully in this world; to live to the best of our ability as God’s children. That is Salvation. God so loved us that God sent the beloved Son to free us from our blindness, our blasé attitude, to refocus us on God’s love; to know that love conquers all fear.

Do we see it?

It can be sad to see people not truly engaged in Jesus. And it can be sad that we, as church, have not brought forth a living Jesus for people to be engaged in. Part of the reason so many still have not come back after Covid is not their fault, or at least entirely. We as a church did not fully engage them, or ourselves.

We need to share with each other, with our own children how Jesus has changed our lives for the better. We need to share how God strengthened us in times of sadness, grief or fear; helping us to be resilient. As Chris Bray told us earlier this week; we have God Encounters that can open our eyes to God’s presence. 

Stories shared do open our eyes. Stories of how God was encountered in a generous family, who gave a gift to a special needs child that just brought light and hope into another family’s life. Or how God was encountered when a person who held onto such anger for another; and then heard God say forgive already, surrendered that anger and found peace. Or how a person living in depression finally saw what salvation was; and all that religious education, all the masses attended, all the sacraments celebrated finally made sense; and a cloud was lifted; Jesus became real in a very personal way.

How many of us will approach communion, kind of doing our routine that we do each week; forgetting that we receive the Son of God. Whereas there are some here in our own community who can’t yet; who long to, who have been preparing for it; but not for a couple of weeks. We receive someone with eyes of Faith, that bread and wine still look as bread and wine; but with trust we see the divine.

And if we can see him there;  Can’t we see much more?