SEEING THROUGH
WHAT WE’RE SEEING
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Monday in the 3rd
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
