Last week I spoke of our inability to see with long sight to those things that we need to undertake for the future. This week's readings speak to us of how shallow our sight is, especially when it comes to seeing others for who they are. We rely on what is presumably the shortest sight that we can achieve because it is the quickest and thus for our age the best. We only have to look at the first reading from today regarding the selection of David (1 Sam.16:1-13). Just like everyone else Samuel sees not with God's eyes but with the eyes of the human. A short quick assessment of what is before him allows him to judge the worth of the sons. Too often we too use the quick sight that is shallow to assess our neighbours and what is before us.
It is not only people that we undertake this shallow sight on, it is at the end of the day basically every single thing that we have to look at. What do I mean? Well if we are presented with a new way of doing something we give it a quick glance and then depending on our life experience will make a decision as to whether it is going to be effective or not. Quite often we overlook something that is phenomenal only to kick ourselves later when it becomes obvious that it is the next technique, object or whatever which has become something of desire. I can think of a number of occasions when I was offered something and declined only to never be able to obtain it again. Our shallow gaze often makes us overlook the inherent goodness or rightness in what we are looking at or how it will change our lives for the better. Our shortness of sight and our quickness to take exception lead us into our many downfalls not only as people but as members of our faith.
We also go on to overlook the smallest of possibilities because we are to focussed on making the grand gesture. We think that because something is small in our eyes then it is worthless especially when it comes to new beginnings. We want to be lavish when we undertake things but as Christ points out in the parables of the seed (Mk. 4:26-34) it is the small beginnings that bring about the most change. In our parishes and our lives we yearn for the big opportunity, the big new start and overlook the small offerings that are made to us each and every day. It is from the smallest acorn that a mighty oak is grown and so for us it is from the smallest and humblest of hearts that the greatest faith and beginning is found. We cannot fathom the incomprehensibility of God's thoughts or plans such that we must make our own as a form of compensation. We dream big and as a result we often do not have our dreams come to fruition. But just think if we were but to plant a small seed of love in someone's life who knows what will grow as a result. That does not mean that we do not dream big but rather allow for a small start that will grow to fulfil our dreaming.
Paul states in the letter to the Corinthians that we are always confident (2 Cor. 5:6). We are totally confident in ourselves. We are confident in our dreams and in our plans, yet we, unlike those that Paul address, are too often not one with the Lord. We do not live in our faith but in our own ideas and our own plans. We belittle others because, more often than not, they do not dream big enough for us. Yet, if we were to see with God's eyes, if we were to look beyond our senses and actually manage to walk in faith we would see a devastatingly different world. We would not shun the small but celebrate the seeds that are sown in the small ways that we reach out to the other. To often we allow what we deem to be the big picture to cloud the compassion that God asks of us and wishes us to take in faith. We just have to think of the response over the last few years of the government to a small Tamil family who have sought asylum and were in Queensland accepted into the community. Instead of looking at a small impoverished family they saw the large problem. They looked superficially rather than with deep eyes of faith and Christ. Paul states to the Corinthians that we must not look with human eyes but with the eyes of Christ (2 Cor: 5:16). This means that we must take our time when we are assessing things like new projects, new ways of doing things and new outlooks that are different from what we think we believe. This means that we must also look with the discernment of the Spirit much as how David's kingly abilities were discerned. Only when we are certain of the path that God wishes us to travel can we make decisions that further God's kingdom that allows the sown seeds of faith to grow.
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