March  22,  2020

“THE  WHOLE OF LIFE 

CAN  BE FOUND IN THE 

VERB ‘TO SEE!’” 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Sunday in Lent [A]  is a quote from Teilhard de Chardin, “The Whole of Life Can Be Found in the Verb ‘To See.’”

Sometimes quoters leave out the “of” – and say, “The Whole Life Can Be Found in the Verb to See.”

What do you see – what do you hear – what do you sense when you hear today’s readings, today’s gospel, today’s words – especially: blindness, seeing, light, darkness, judgment, appearance?

What do you see – when you see what you see?

How long into a marriage do husbands and wives realize – “We don’t see the same.”

When do parents notice – find out – see – that their kids don’t see the same way they see – or the same things they see.

How old is the average age when we begin to realize that all people see differently?

Perception is reality – but we all see differently.

TEACHERS

However, for starters, we learn to see as our parents see. They are seeing us – protecting us - tutoring us – bringing us up.

When I spot an article on how the human eye develops in a baby – how they recognize mom, dad, brothers and sisters, dogs, cats, familiar territory – as opposed to the unfamiliar, I read it.

Who have been your teachers – besides family members?

JIMMY  LOVER

As I was preparing this homily I remembered something I heard in a homily from Jimmy Lover. This happened when we were at Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary, Esopus, New York. He was a Canon Law professor.

He gave the example of a teenage girl saying to her dad, “I lost one of my contact lenses.”

Her dad asked, “Did you look  at every inch of your bedroom?”

She said, “Yes, and I still can’t find it.”

He went into her bedroom and came back in less than 5 minutes, “Here it is.”

She said, “How did you find it so fast?”

He said, ‘You were looking for your contact lens.  I was looking for $123 dollars.”

TEDDY  MEEHAN

We all remember Teddy Meehan – who taught us history in the major seminary. Everyone imitated Teddy who was forever  saying, “Do you see?” He asked that over and over again. We  used to mark every time he said, “Do you see?”

I remember the highest number was 267 times in one class. That  was the record.

He wanted us to see what he was trying to get us to see. He wanted to be understood. He was every one of us to grasp what he was trying to say.  He wanted to be understood.

Do you see that?

CHARLIE KOERBER

I remember Charlie Koerber. To me he was  our best teacher.  We had him for First Dogma.  I remember that he wanted us to see what was in the four volumes of Herve. He was the author of our dogmatic  theology text books. Then Charlie said, “There is a library down the corridor with lots of books and magazines and there will be a lot more coming out on all the issues of Dogmatic Theology in the years ahead.  You have the rest of your life to open up those articles and books and come up with new answers to old questions.

THIRD EYE

So, how we see comes from our parents, our schools, our teachers.

I also learned a lot in life from workshops and lectures – in the years after we got out of the major seminary.

One workshop thought me about “the Third Eye”.

We see not only with our physical eyes – as well as our minds – but in Eastern Thought we can learn a lot about the Third Eye – our inner eye. In the Chakra, this is the 6^th one.

Hindi, Buddhist, Taoism, and many Asia, spirituality methods  center on the Third Eye.  It refers to spirituality, consciousness raising – learning to see better from inner levels.

TODAY’S READINGS

Here is where we can understand today’s 3 readings.

In the first reading from the 16^th Chapter of 1^st Book of Samuel for today we hear about how God sees: with the heart.  Listen to the great comment from God: “Not as man does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart.”

In today’s second reading from the 5^th chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians Paul says, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light….”

In today’s gospel from the 9^th chapter of John we hear about a man blind from birth.

We can see that as physical blindness  - or we can look at that as spiritual blindness.  We can see that eye as the third eye – and Christ gives us many eye openers.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily has been, “The Whole of Life Can Be Found in the Verb ‘To See.’”

The prayer for this 4^th Sunday in Lent is that we learn to see all that is of God – especially what  we’re missing.