SEEING  THROUGH 

WHAT  WE’RE  SEEING 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Monday in the 3^rd Week of Easter is, “Seeing Through What We’re Seeing.”

To give credit, where credit belongs, I got the idea for this sermon from a woman named Kathy Coffee, mother of four kids - a speaker and a writer. [1]

In commenting on today’s two readings she talks about Jesus in today’s gospel seeing through the motives of the crowd who are looking for him not because of his signs - but because he gives out food (John 6: 22-29). And in today’s first reading, the crowd will attack Steven - because underneath everything they want to kill anyone who is following Jesus (Acts of the Apostles 6: 8-15).

COMMON EXPERIENCE

It’s a common experience to experience someone who puts up a smoke screen or what have you - simply because their bottom line is to get us.

They think they know our underneath and they don’t like it. Meanwhile their underneath is loaded with mixed motives or fake motives.

At times I’ve met people who want to attack someone’s motives - or what they assume to be another’s motives.  Sometimes they do it with clenched teeth or jaw. Sometimes they do it with a smile.

We see this happening all through the scriptures.

We see this happening all through our lives.

The history of the world seems to be war - when life would be so much better - and sweeter -  if we all worked to be instruments of God’s peace.

A MOUSE IS MIRACLE ENOUGH

In her commentary on today’s readings Kathy Coffee quotes something Walt Whitman said. I have never heard or noticed it before. Whitman said, “a mouse is miracle enough”.

People jump when they see a mouse. Whitman stopped and realized what a miracle a mouse is. I had never thought of that. I get it, because I have been amazed while looking at birds and squirrels. They climb and fly so amazingly.

Toy dogs and cats need batteries. Humans and ducks, cats and dogs, move because they have the miracle of life.

Don’t we pause at times and feel our pulse and know our heart is working - pumping blood and life through our systems.

Miracles surround us.

Miracles abound.

Amazement should resound in us.

Doesn’t that get us to see through what we’re seeing and we see God in the unseen.

I love that quote from Walt Whitman about the mouse.

It’s sort of like the quote I used in my homily yesterday from Mary Ann Evans - better known as George Eliot - who in her famous must read book, Middlemarch, said, “If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.”

CONCLUSION: A SUGGESTION

The title of my homily is, “Seeing Through What We’re Seeing.”

As a conclusion here’s a suggestion.

Practice going underneath.

Ask inwardly, “Are you saying what you’re saying or are you saying something else?”

Ask inwardly, “Are you seeing what you’re seeing or are you seeing something else?”

We see this in kids. They want the cookie or the cake or the candy. The rest is staging for the treat.

We see this in adults - but it’s more complex. They are getting back for something we said last week that they didn’t like. They don’t know that’s what they are doing.

Didn’t Jesus say from the cross, “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing”?

We need to practice seeing what’s going on underneath.

To avoid judgment - ask others, “Are you saying what you’re saying or are you saying something else?”

To keep the peace - in a warlike moment - ask, “What are you seeing going on here?”

I see this happening in many interactions in the gospels between Jesus and his adversaries.

I read once about a  little girl who said at the dinner table, “Nobody ever tells me they love me.” 

Her mom said, “Your aunt said she loved you at dinner the other night.”

Pause….

Then the little girl after thinking said,  says, “No she didn’t.”

Silence.

Then she said to her mom,  “When did she tell me that she loved me?”

Her mom answered, “When she said, ‘Don’t eat too fast’”

To be open our eyes - to open our mind - we need to go to the other side of silence and hear the roar of love and amazement that’s going on underneath the bread and the wine and the words of our lives.

So that’s the gist of this homily entitled, “Seeing Through What We’re Seeing” or hearing or doing.”  Amen

NOTES

[1] Page 276, “Unrelenting Graces” by Kathy Coffey, in Give Us This Day, April 2015