Sr. Doreen, SSJD
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Give us eyes to see you clearly; make us children of your light.
Give us hearts to live more nearly as your gospel shining bright, as your gospel shining bright.
As we move into Lent this year, I have been pondering one of Marty Haugen’s hymns called “Tree of Life”. Each week in Lent I thought I would share a meditation on one of the 5 Sunday Lenten final stanzas that can be added to his hymn.
I thought perhaps it would be helpful to put these stanzas into context by sharing Marty’s whole hymn and so I have printed it below:
Tree of Life and awesome mystery, in your death we are reborn; though you die in all of history, still you rise with every morn, still your rise with every morn.
Seed that dies to rise in glory, may we see ourselves in you; if we learn to live your story we may die to rise anew, we may die to rise anew.
We remember truth once spoken, love passed on through act and word; every person lost and broken wears the body of our Lord, wears the body of our Lord.
Gentle Jesus, mighty Spirit, come inflame our hearts anew. We may all your joy inherit if we bear the cross with you, if we bear the cross with you.
Christ, you lead and we shall follow, stumbling though our steps may be; one with you in joy and sorrow, we the river you the sea, we the river you the sea.
Light of life beyond conceiving mighty Spirit of our Lord; give new strength to our believing, give us faith to live your word, give us faith to live your word.
So today, the stanza added to the hymn for the fourth Sunday in Lent:
Give us eyes to see you clearly; make us children of your light.
Give us hearts to live more nearly as your gospel shining bright, as your gospel shining bright.
This fourth Sunday stanza brought two very different scripture passage to my mind – serving as a paradox or a contradiction, which always flashes lights of ‘reality’ for me! In my own journey through life I have found that paradox or contradiction is a familiar experience, one that helps us to stop trying to find answers to everything and learn to be more comfortable with questions that lead us to deeper understanding. Somehow, as one gets older it is the questions that become more important than the answers!
These are the two scripture passages that sparked my comments so far.
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but they cannot speak; eyes have they, but they cannot see;
They have ears, but they cannot hear; noses but they cannot smell;
They have hands but they cannot feel; feet but they cannot walk;
They make no sound with their throat.
Those who make them are like them, and so are all who put their trust in them.”
(Psalm 115: 4-8)
“But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance. (Matthew 13: 16-17)
This fourth week of Lent then is a time when we ask God to give us eyes that we may see God clearly and hearts that live more closely to the heart of God. I began to think that so often we find ourselves in situations where we really need to ask God to mend our blindness, and to draw us home.
As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The beauty of the story of the Bethsaida Blind Man comes when we see our own blindness in the disciples’ blindness. If we ask, “How could the disciples be so dense?” we need immediately to ask the same question of ourselves. The disciples saw dimly in a glass coated with the dust of traditional ways of viewing things and warped by the twist of their own dreams and ambitions. The glass we look through is no different, it is dusty and warped. We are no less in need of healing as the man from Bethsaida before we can see what God is doing, and it may not take on the first try.
Joyce Rupp in her book ‘Fragments of your Ancient Name” wrote The Seer of All (from the Qur’an: “If only we had your extensive vision and could see beyond our small self. There would be fewer antagonisms and less desire to demand revenge. Harsh judgments would be pulled back and our meager mercy greatly expanded. For you observe the deeper part of us, our silent motivations and expectations. You focus on what unites, not divides. You see how we are more alike than different.” And with her, I pray that my eyes join those of the Seer of All.
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.” “What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the Little Prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember. (The Little Prince). In addition to other central themes such as love, friendship and loss, The Little Prince is a story about looking, about how we see only what we are prepared to see; about the narrowness that can come with our perspectives, professional and otherwise; about the way grownups and children look at the world differently.
It is often difficult for us to admit that we are in a season of blindness, difficult to see the truth. These are times when my opinions are always the best. Times when I had to be in control. Times when I had built walls around myself, walls that prevented others, and I thought even God, from really seeing me. We do this is such a strange way! All the while that we are holding things and people at a distance, we are longing, crying out to be known, understood, and loved.
Often the mending of our blindness, those aha moments, come in unexpected ways. Sometimes it may be a song, a psalm, the morning or evening news, some circumstance or difficulty in our daily life, some personal news or news of someone we love. It could be just a small smile or the twinkle in someone’s eye, a friendly hug. Whatever it is, it startles us out of our complacency, out of our weariness, and reawakens in us compassion and love. We see at a new level, a new understanding.
One of the most clear messages from Jesus in the story of the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida is the importance of having our eyes and our hearts fully open, a gift we ask of God. Help us to have eyes and heart fully open. And help us to share this message with others. As we journey through life with God and with each other we gradually grow in our ability to see, know, love, and trust God – to see the beauty of God more and more clearly in our lives.
I close with another poem written by Joyce Rupp in her book “Anchors for the Soul” called The Eyes of Faith: “Because we are pilgrims whose homeland is not here, we journey, search, travel, discover, live with mystery, doubt and wonder. We see dreams come true, see hopes alive. We see dreams dashed, see hopes die. We start over again – with people, work, prayer, our whole life, all the days of our life. It is the way of the human spirit. The journey inside always has the aura of mystery and challenge because when we travel inward, we can see only with the eyes of faith [the eyes of the heart].” (From Praying our Goodbyes – page 46)
