See as God Sees!

 

A young woman named Maria was born in Eastern Europe. She was born prematurely and suffered from many medical complications, one of which was blindness. When she turned 15, she had the opportunity to come to the United States. A wonderful doctor told Maria’s parents that one of her eyes could possibly regain some sight if she received a corneal transplant. She was placed on the transplant list. Lo and behold, a donor was found and she had the surgery. Remember at the age of 15, she had never seen light.

 

The time came to remove the surgical bandages from her eyes. The doctor sat her down in front of a mirror and slowly removed the bandages from her face. Someone in the room had a smart phone and stood behind Maria’s right shoulder and looked at the mirror so Maria’s face would be seen as the bandages were removed.

 

Maria’s eyes were closed. She slowly opened them, and her face was filled with astonishment. She had never seen anything and now she was looking at herself in the mirror and she squealed with delight. And then, in her native tongue, she looked at herself and said, “I am so pretty!”

 

Thanks to the marvels of the smart phone and YouTube we are now privileged to witness miracles such as these. Miracle moments are now posted on Facebook with great regularity. And we can see them.

 

Unfortunately, that is not the case in today’s gospel, but we can imagine it. The gospel of John tells us about a man born blind and, like 15-year-old Maria, he had never seen anything. He lived in complete darkness. He sat by the side of the road and begged for his daily bread. As people of Jesus’ day saw the man, they asked a question that you and I ask most often, “Why do bad things happen to people?” As they searched the Old Testament they found an answer – “if they are suffering, they have received a punishment from God due to sin.” No wonder they asked Jesus, “who sinned? The man or his parents?” So, the whole family lived under the darkness of shame.

 

As Jesus was passing by, he noticed the man’s suffering. Jesus spit on the ground and smeared clay on the man’s eyes, recalling from the book of Genesis how God created man and woman out of clay. What Jesus did for this man was create a new life for him – new genesis for him and his family. He smeared clay and said, “Go and wash in the pool of Siloam!” and the man departed. This is where I wish someone had a smart phone so we could see his reaction. What happened when he washed his face? What was the look on this man’s face? For the first time in his life, he could see. How did he respond when he saw the first glimpse of sunlight in the ripple of water in the pool. Imagine how he felt! It must have felt strange.

 

Imagine when you are 20 or 25 and can see everything in the world for the first time. You know what it’s called but you don’t know what it looks like. Imagine how strange that must have been – to see trees and flowers, even the Annual Diocesan Appeal pledge form for the first

time. Imagine seeing the face of your mother or your father for the first time. Before, you recognized them because of their voices or the scent of their skin.

 

Keep in mind mirrors were scarce at the time of Jesus. What was the man’s reaction when he saw his face for the first time?

 

When Maria looked at herself in the mirror, she said, “I am so pretty.” But for the man born blind, the reaction was different. When he went out to share the joy of his healing, and people saw him, they did not see him the way Maria saw herself – pretty. It was almost as if they’re saying you’re ugly. You might be thinking, “but that is not in the gospel.” True! But look at what the people did. They dragged the man in front of a religious tribunal, questioned him, mocked him saying, “the One who healed you is a sinner because He healed you on the Sabbath, therefore you too are a sinner, get out!” Basically, saying you’re ugly.

 

Sadly, we continue to experience what the man born blind experienced. Yes, even in our Church. How many times have people been pushed away because they are different from us. They don’t speak like us, they don’t look like us, and we say, “get out!”

 

But Jesus, the light of the world, goes and finds the man, who the religious leaders had discarded. Jesus helps this man to see everything clearly. He helps him to see that he is deeply loved by God. Jesus helps him see that God does not want him to live in guilt or in shame. Jesus helps him to see that His parents are beloved by God. Jesus helps him to see that there is no darkness stronger that the light of God. Jesus helps him to see that even if everyone has cast him aside, God’s answer is staring him in the face and tells him you are deeply loved, you are a beautiful child of God. This is what Jesus helps this man to see. Also, this is what Jesus wants to help us to see.

 

Today, Jesus invites us to wash our eyes in the baptismal waters so that we can see as God sees, to see ourselves as God sees us, to see our neighbors as God sees them.

 

Let us use our eyes today and look at the bread and wine that are placed upon this altar and see them as God sees them – not just food and drink, but the real presence of the living Christ. The Christ who sees us and says to us – you are deeply loved by God, and you are amazingly beautiful!