Heart Sight: A short commentary on the man born blind

 

Imagine the unimaginable. Did the man born blind feel compelled to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming when the one thing he wanted most in his life, happened. Born into darkness, he encounters the Light of the World when he washed the mud away from his eyes in the pool of Siloam. The light of Jesus pierced the darkness of this man’s world and opened up to his eyes for the first time the wonder of not just sight, but insight. Without knowing Jesus, much less seeing him, the man born blind knows who Jesus is. What the man did not expect to encounter was the darkness that filled the hearts of the Pharisees.

 In Ezechial 36, God tells the Jewish people that their eyes will behold the holiness of God. God continues, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them.” The eyes of the Pharisees saw the miracles Jesus worked, yet the darkness induced by their hearts of stone, prevented them from knowing him. If our hearts have been petrified into stone by life, we have the opportunity to have our hearts transformed and penetrated by the light of Jesus this Lent, opening our eyes to see the wonders of the risen Lord at Easter. 

The Annunciation

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation. Did Mary really know what she was getting into when she said, “Yes” to the angel?  If she was flesh and blood human, the answer would be absolutely not! Do any of us have a clue as to what we are in for when a pregnancy begins? Of course not, otherwise we would have remained celibate. In the life of every parent, there are times the thought of “perhaps, I should have showed a little more restraint that night I was feeling particularly randy” comes into mind … especially as children reach the age of adolescence. However, God has had a hand in co-creating our children with us. It is spiritual a ménage a trois, so to speak, in which God plays as much a hand in the raising of the children as do the parents. In the end, are not children the greatest legacy of a parent? It is in my case. So it was this 14 yr old girl that said “yes” to the angel. Not knowing what was ahead for her and the child with which she was pregnant; armed only with a deep fast trust in the God she loved, and the God who loved her back, she said, “yes” and let the dice roll as we all do. May all of us who are parents be one with this very flesh and blood Mary as we continue our parenthood. For like the child of Mary, each and every child of ours bears the imprint and face of her son.

In honor of this feast, is this beautiful poem, THE ANNUNCIATION, written by Denise Levertov

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,
almost always a lecturn, a book; always
the tall lily.

Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions
courage
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent. God waited.

She was free
to accept or refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

Aren't there annunciations
of one sort or another in most lives?
Some unwillingly undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.

More often those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.

God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes..

She had been a child who played, ate, spelt
like any other child - but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
she did not quail,
only asked

a simple, "How can this be?"
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel's reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power -
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.

Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love -

but who was God.

In honor of the feast day of Archbishop Oscar Romero

Of all the Christian martyrs of the 20th century, none to me, is as brave and as stalwart as Oscar Romero. He and the people he served were persecuted by the government, an oligarchy of the richest families of El Salvador in reality, and also persecuted by the Catholic Church in Rome. Pope John Paul II's experience of Communist rule in Poland blinded his eyes to the evils of unchecked and unbridaled Capitalism. John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger look with great suspicion on this man of the Church whose only purpose in life was to served the spiritual needs of his people. Oscar Romero and the Catholics of El Salvador were cast adrift in a sea filled with ecclesiastical suspicion and the brutal, murderous persecution of the El Salvadorian government. Yet the Church of El Salvador did not sink nor surrender to the raging seas around them. The bullet from a coward ended his life as Romero held aloft the consecrated blood of Jesus, his own blood mixed with the blood of the Lord he loved so greatly. This man should have been made a saint, decades ago. It is ironical the Pope who stood in the way of his canonization will be made a saint very soon. We all know who the real saint is ... Below are some incredible things St Oscar Romero (at least in my personal calendar of saints) told his people in his homilies.

Among the events of this week, which, of course, are many, one stands out for me with a sense of gratitude, the celebration of my birthday, through which I have understood once again that my life doesn't belong to me, but to all of you. August 21, 1977

I have never believed myself to be the leader of a people, because there is only one leader: Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fountain of hope. I base what I preach on Jesus. In Jesus is the truth of what I am saying. August 28, 1977

The church today does not rely on any power, on wealth. Today the church is poor. Today the church knows that the powerful reject her, but that she is loved by those who put their faith in God…. This is the church that I want. A church that does not rely on the privileges and the worth of earthly things. A church ever more detached from earthly things, human things, so that she can judge them more freely from her perspective of the gospel, from her poverty. August 28, 1977

Blessed are the liberators who put their strength not in weapons, not in kidnapping, not in violence, nor in money, but rather know that liberation must come from God; it will be the wonderful coming together of the liberating power of God and the Christian effort of human beings. October 30, 1977

I want to clarify one point. The news of death threats to my person have been much repeated…. I want to assure you, and I ask your prayers that I be faithful to this promise, that I will not abandon my people, rather I will run the same risks with them that my ministry requires. November 11, 1979

Romero, Oscar A. (2011-07-17). Through The Year With Oscar Romero: Daily Meditations (Kindle Locations 1722-1725). St. Anthony Messenger Press. Kindle Edition.

A reflection on the poem, "To A Long-Loved Love," by Madeleine L'Engle

I know why a star gives light
Shining quietly in the night;
Arithmetic helps me unravel
The hours and years this light must travel
       To penetrate our atmosphere.
I can count the craters on the moon
With telescopes to make them clear.
With delicate instruments I can measure
The secrets of barometric pressure.
       And therefore I find it inexpressibly queer
That with my own soul I am out of tune,
And that I have not stumbled upon the art
Of forecasting the weather of the heart.

(L'Engle, Madeleine (2009-02-04). The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle (Kindle Locations 351-356). The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.}

This is the third part of a beautiful poem entitled, “To A Long-Loved Love,” by the poet and author, Madeleine L’Engle. This poem in three parts is about the long term relationship Madeleine has had as a lover with another person. And, while this is about a love relationship with another human being, I believe that the poem can be read to express the intimate relationship we all have with God. In spite of how long our love relationship with God has been, have we not at times faltered in that relationship? Even the great apostle to the Gentiles, Paul of Tarsas, writes in his letter to the Romans, “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate …For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” (Rm 7: 15,19) We all love imperfectly, even to those to whom we are the most devoted. However, God loves us perfectly and accepts us as we are, imperfections and all. There is a story about Rabbi Zusya prior to his death saying, “In the coming world, they will not ask me: “Why were you not Moses:” They will ask me: “Why were you not Zusya?”  Even though we may be out of tune with our own souls, God is always in tune with our souls. God knows intimately the melody our soul sings, even if we do not hear it ourselves.
 

The Woman at the Well, bulletin article for 3-23-14

THIRST QUENCHING

We have all experienced the sensation of thirst, where our mouths and throats are parched so much so that we describe it as “dry as a desert.” I remember as a kid getting so thirsty playing with my friends during the summer, that as I drank water from the garden hose, I would fill my mouth so that it overflowed and the water would run down my face onto my tee shirt. As human beings we use the word thirst to describe many of our wants and needs. There is a false prevailing tendency to believe that as we pursue the wants and needs of our lives, we do it solely on our own. We take pride in being ‘self-made’ individuals and refuse to acknowledge the intervention or help we receive from others, even God. This is a residual effect from Original Sin. We are not ‘self-made,’ rather we are ‘God-made.’ God has poured into our lives, through Jesus in the Holy Spirit, all the good and all the gifts we possess. On our own, we, like the Israelites in the first reading, are unable to satisfy the deep thirsts of our lives. Jesus reminds us today, as he does the Samaritan woman, that it is only in God that our thirst for all will be quenched forever.