“The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light” Matthew 6:22-23(NRSV)
Last month, when my wife got her first pair of glasses, I was reminded of my own experience in Year 9 when I first started wearing specs. One of my challenges was keeping them safe while playing; I often forgot where I left them, knowing that getting a new pair wouldn’t be a quick process. However, as the years passed, my glasses became my lifelong companions, journeying with me everywhere and helping me see the world clearly.
We often tire of the blurred vision surrounding us, yearning for clarity. The streets and walls are splattered with blood, pointing to the world’s leaders. Would you like to have a spec? Beggars’ hands and fleshless bones ask all of us, “Do you have blurred vision? Then, use a spec. The misguided people of all ages are desperately asking for the same. Those confined in the prison of solitude and those standing with broken bonds also pose this question. The dried-up reservoirs, submerged homes and fields, polluted skies, and the angry sun all loudly proclaim, with human indifference: “You need spectacles.” Those isolated in the confines of discernment and divisions and the disciples whose hearts have run dry of love will be chanting: need spectacles.
Let us take a moment to examine the changes in our eyesight. Are we finding it difficult to see? Need a diagnosis. Sometimes, trash, dust, or fog can distort our vision, preventing us from seeing what’s around us. In these moments, we must clean our glasses. Those wearing glasses must ask themselves if they wear the right lenses. If our glasses don’t aid our vision but distort our image of ourselves and our beliefs, it’s time for a new prescription. Ann Madsen reminds us that our challenge is to “finally see as God sees.”
Let us pray: Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
be all else but naught to me, save that Thou art;
be Thou my best thought in the day and the night,
both waking and sleeping, Thy presence my light. Amen