“Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.” 1 Samuel 16: 7
Only Christ gives Life
A story is told of a young fledgling playwright Morris West, who goes to the theater in New York City to see a play starring Robert Goulet (a great American songwriter). After a good conversation, Robert Goulet gives the following advice: ‘if you want to be in theater, you have got to be a ‘surgeon’, you always have to ‘cut’ – meaning it is determination and dedication to ‘look’ deeper, to remove the ‘unnecessary’ that might well give one their break in life. A lot of life’s road can be a theater of sorts, we must ‘dig deeper’, see beyond appearances, remove the ‘unnecessary’, assess and evaluate ‘things’ in order to find our true meaning and purpose. This applies also to the Christian Life.
Samuel the prophet gets it all wrong when he is asked by God to go anoint one of Jesse’s sons king. He hastily judges that Eliab must be the one (he is of lofty stature and has the right appearance), but God rejects him. Why? Because God’s divine intuition sees deeper. God’s criterion is more than human. Man sees appearance, but God looks into the heart. God bypasses the credentials and externals that dazzle us human beings. When God calls someone on a mission, he actually enjoys to upset human logic, but for a reason: to bring us beyond our human shortsightedness to the life that he only can offer, which is something more.
Seeing things as God does, will bring us to a more accurate perception of our lives. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9: 2). Blindness in the scriptures is believed to be a result of sin (a curse). Blind people were therefore impure, unclean and outcasts. They did not merit anything but to suffer their fate. This was standard practice especially for the religious elite (Pharisees and Jews). They cannot believe that Jesus has sought out the ‘outcast’ and healed his blindness. Jesus has broken the rules yet again. They rush to interrogate the healed blind man (and his parents) almost wanting him to be blind again (These are ‘darkened’ hearts!). But the healed man now, with the light of Christ, ‘sees’; he will not turn back. He will not deny the Christ! Not after this! The Pharisees are now the blind ones, who will not see others rightly as God does. For God seeks those who turn to him as they are, knowing that they are sure to find life in him. What good in others are you always blind to? How might you work to be more un-resisting of the goodness of others, especially those who are not from your circles?
The challenge of today’s readings is to let Christ give us life. Only Christ. Allow the grace of God to lead us, especially in the dire crossroads of life. The Gospel will give us a sense of direction, if we let it. There is something deeper than the appearances or externals of the world that give us constant restless anxiety. We must turn off and listen to the voice of God. Allow him to upset our conventional wisdom mongers. Let us bring others to the Life of Christ by our deeds and words. Let us un-harden our hearts to view others as God does. Risking to do all these things will bring us to life.
With the Lord, we will always be well.
Fr. Anthony
View the below video for another Sunday Reflection on the readings.
