WE  ALL  DON’T   SEE  ALIKE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 23 Wednesday in Ordinary Time is, “We All Don’t See Alike.”

It’s a possible theme from today’s readings.

It’s an obvious message from today’s readings: we all don’t see alike.

We get frustrated when we forget this.  We think everyone is seeing what we’re seeing and the way we are seeing.  Nope.  We see differently.

We get better communication with each other when we accept this obvious human reality. We listen to each other better. We ask, “Well, how do you see this situation?”

FIRST READING

Paul is telling us in today’s first reading from Colossians 3: 1-11  that some people look at those in the crowd and they see Greeks, Jews, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythians, slaves and those who are free.

Then Paul says you don’t have to see that way. We can see Christ and he is all and in all of us.

GOSPEL

In today’s gospel from Luke 6: 20-26 we hear Luke  telling his listeners this:  what looks like poverty, hunger, weeping, and hatred could be a blessing if we see differently.

Take riches vs poverty.  The person who sees themselves rich with brains, smartness, better than others, might not bother to ask others their input or ideas.  Why? Well, they already  have the answer.

MESSAGE

So my message is obvious common sense:  we all don’t see alike. We all see differently.

Bring 10 kids together.  Give each kid a big piece of paper and a box of crayons. Then put a watermelon or a cat or a dog in the center of a room and tell the kids to draw what they see.

We’ll get 10 different pictures.

I just finished 17 years in a parish in Annapolis, Maryland - and every year there were 3 retreats for our high school kids.  In a talk on creativity, the speaker, a high school kid, would show a picture and kids were told to look at it and then draw it - or write a poem or a story about it - and the results                  were big time different - every time.

We all see differently.

TEDDY MEEHAN

We had an old priest as a history  teacher in the seminary. In a given 1 hour class,  he would ask  over and over  the question: “Do you see?”  The record was 263 times in one class.

I think every person is saying, “Do you see what I see?”

I hope every person asks the other: “How do you see what’s right in front of us?”

I think that is what Jesus says out loud to us 100 times per day: “Do you see what you’re seeing?”

I think Jesus is asking, “Do you see what I’m seeing?”

CONCLUSION

Communion: does not just take place  at Mass.