March 22, 2020
“THE WHOLE OF LIFE
CAN BE FOUND IN THE
VERB
‘TO SEE!’”
INTRODUCTION
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 6th 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 16th Chapter of 1st 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 5th 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 9th 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 4th
Sunday in Lent is that we learn to see all that is of God – especially what we’re missing.
