When the boys were little, they naturally didn’t want to go on auto trips with Mom & Dad. Once in the car (after they asked, “Are we almost there?”) the next bored question was, “What are we gonna see?” This usually inspired me to sing, “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” until threatened with bodily harm by the others in our little red VW. Without dealing with the eschaton or future theology — the Other Side of the Mountain — Sunday’s readings center on New Vision in God’s Love…
Just as the old prophet Samuel had worried, King Saul wasn’t working out. He listened to God only part of the time. So we find Samuel coming to Bethlehem to check out the sons of Jesse, since God told him to anoint one of these as the New King. But which one of the eight? Son Number One, Eliab, stood up before Samuel, and Samuel thought him surely to be the one! Yet the Lord said, “Do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7) You probably remember that all seven sons were called; but God chose the youngest, David.
St. Paul speaks to his friends in Ephesus about this Inner Sight: “For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light….everything exposed by the light becomes visible.” (Ephesians 5:8 & 13) The human condition, he says, is shortsighted and stumbling in the “unfruitful works of darkness”. But God’s light calls the believer to see more clearly: ” Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
John’s Gospel alone contains the wonderfully told story about Jesus healing the man who was born blind. (9:1-41) Jesus anointed his eyes with mud made from the dust of the earth (see Genesis), and after washing, the fellow came back seeing! BUT…it was the Sabbath, and the Holy People fussed. They quizzed the man and his parents, finally inducing the guy to shout in desperation, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” Again, the presence of God refines our limited vision into seeing the dimensions of heaven and claiming the sight of eternity…
I was 15 when I first got glasses. Just like most of us, my eyes had weakened imperceptably over the years, and I was amazed and delighted with how much more dimension I now had! Lights on the Christmas Tree and other seasonal decorations just burst with new definition, and I could see individual trees instead of just “the woods”. My new specs were marvelous, and my teenage days were immensely brightened… Is the light of your soul dim? Come see what God is doing!
God Bless Us, Every One Horace Brown King
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