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.
