Reflection for Sunday – March 6, 2016

Denise MackSunday Readings Homilies

Readings: 1 Samuel 16: 1b, 6-7, 10-13a; Ephesians 5: 8-14; John 9:1-41  Reflection by Denise Mack

This weekend the Church throughout the world hears either the Gospel of the Prodigal Son or of Jesus Healing the Man Born Blind. Parishes with
Catechumens who will celebrate the Easter Sacraments are encouraged to
proclaim the Healing of the Blind Man Gospel.

Could it be that the Holy Spirit is nudging us to look with care at our
lives to see if we are who we say we are?

We are Christians and people are joining our faith community. Who do these catechumens see here? Do they see in us a people whose actions and choices reflect God’s loving care and mercy? How do our behaviors and words radiate the spiritual and corporal works of mercy?

Are we who we say we are?

A spiritual practice that traces our deepening insight into the words and ways of God may be helpful. To see with God’s eyes we not only pray with
Scripture but we can acknowledge the many ways we have seen faith lived or not.

How did I come to faith? Who nurtured my faith? Who inspires me still?
What examples of faith did I see as a child, an adolescent, a young adult, an adult?

When has God helped me see what needs doing? To see who needs assistance? To see possibilities for healing? To see the potential
for making a positive difference in the community? To see role models in
faith?

When has God shown me what needs changing? When has God shown ways to make things better, more accessible to people’s needs?
When has God shown me injustices and inconsistencies that burst my bubble of long held certainties that under careful scrutiny no longer hold?

How can I better see God’s will?

When have I seen that God wants my time and attention? How have I seen I need God’s help? When have I seen that God is love and that love is the answer? When do I see that God is with humanity even—or especially—during decades-long wars?

How do I see God giving sight to more and more people who now are seeing the rampant homelessness, hunger, illness, violence in pseudo entertainment, greed, and lust for power?

What is God doing with us—as more and more people are coming to sight? Is it enough to see? What is next for those who can see? How do we respond to what Pope Francis calls our culture of indifference?

The prophet Samuel writes, “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.” When we look into our hearts what do we see? Probably not mansions with courtyards and fountains or any of that which St. Teresa of Avila saw. Do we see compassion fatigue?

Do we see hopelessness and helplessness? Do we see the need for community to try again and again to address the needs of the common good?

What I hope and pray we see—and believe—is that God is not finished with us yet. God is bringing us to sight and God does not quit. There is always more to see. There is always a spiritual depth to what we see that we have not even begun to unearth. We need God, that master visionary who seeks to correct our vision all the time.

Denise Mack
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