Keep Your Head on a Swivel

Fourth Sunday of Lent

    In the Michigan State Police, and in other settings, there’s a phrase often called “tunnel vision,” and it refers to being so focused on something, that you don’t notice other things.  In particular, this phrase is used when pursuing a vehicle.  The tendency is to stay so focused on that vehicle, that you can totally miss other vehicles on the road, and whether or not they’re stopping for you or getting over to the side of the road.  The solution to tunnel vision is another phrase we like to use, “keep you head on a swivel,” meaning, keep looking around at your surroundings, and not only on the car that you’re chasing right in front of you.
    Tunnel vision is a form of blindness.  Your eyes still work, but they’re so focused on that one thing, that you miss everything else going on.  And we hear about this especially in our first reading and Gospel today.  In the first reading, Samuel the prophet sees the sons of Jesse, and is so fixated on a strong, leader-looking son to be the next king of Israel, that at first, Samuel fails to see as God sees.  We humans see the appearance, “but the Lord looks into the heart.”  Only when David appears, who is the youngest, but still ruddy and handsome to behold, does God reveal the son of Jesse who is to be the next king of Israel.  Later on we learn that David has a radical trust in God, which is precisely what God wanted in a king for Israel, and which allowed small David to conquer the giant, Goliath.
    In the Gospel, we hear about two blind people: the man born blind and the Pharisees.  The man born blind has physical blindness, and yet is able to see the spiritual realities.  The Pharisees can physically see, but they are blind to the work of God.  The man born blind recognizes Jesus in the beginning as a prophet of God, and later, as the Son of God.  The Pharisees see Jesus as, at best, a nuisance, and at worst, a person who leads others away from God and keeping the sabbath law and the laws of Moses. 
    I think that we’re all suffering, at least a little, and in many cases, a lot, from tunnel vision.  We are so focused on one thing, that we fail to see the other things around us.  And of course, that one thing right now, is COVID-19/Coronavirus.  It’s almost all we hear and see on the news.  It has led to the cancellation of public Masses.  It’s on our minds as we drive on empty roads around town.  It’s certainly our focus at the grocery store as we buy beyond our need and, as has happened so often recently, even beyond any sense of reason.  We focus on the virus when we think about touching someone, or even coming closer than 6 feet to another person.  Some have lost jobs, or at least lost hours at work.  We can no longer dine-in at restaurants.  It has become, in many ways, the all-encompassing focus of our lives.  And because there are still so many unknowns, and no known cure at this point, we focus on all the negatives, which only drives us to more fear.
    I will admit, I’ve been in this same boat.  On my mind has been: How do we make the Mass available to people?  Are the people I encounter carriers?  Are they more vulnerable?  How low is the collection going to be?  Which bills should we pay?  Will the school open up after Spring Break, or will it be closed for the rest of the school year?  Will I be able to visit people at the hospital who are sick and need the sacraments?  How can we provide faith-building materials for people in the midst of our changing schedule?  And on an on it goes.  It seems like that’s all that’s on my mind, and I’m sure you feel the same way, too!
    But, because I have suffered form tunnel vision, I have missed seeing things that God also wants me to see.  Just last Monday, while walking from the rectory to the office, the sun was shining, and there were the first, small flowers blooming by the school, with their little lavender petals and a bright yellow circle in the middle.  And I realized that I was blind to the other things that God is doing.  Spring is springing, flowers are starting to bloom; my perennials are pushing up through the soil, the temperature is warming (ever so slightly).  Have we noticed that?  What else are we missing?  There is a generally greater awareness of caring for our neighbors, making sure that they have enough food and supplies.  Hopefully, even as Masses are cancelled, people will recognize their need for the Eucharist, and not see Sunday Mass as merely an obligation, but a chance to worship God and be nourished by His Word and the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Maybe people are learning new devotions to feed their daily prayer life, and/or reading the Bible more.  What happens when you have tunnel vision is that you miss all those things.  But if you keep your head on a swivel, you can notice that, even in the midst of the very real and great challenges in which we find ourselves, God is doing great things.
    Today, I invite you, to think about what positive things are happening in your life.  What is God doing with, for, and in you that is positive?  Can you recognize the good things that God is doing in your life, in the lives of your family and friends, and in the world around you?  They are there; you simply have to look for it.  Keep you head on a swivel!

Judging People by their Covers

Fourth Sunday of Lent

            We probably heard it in school or from one of our parents: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  And yet, if you’re anything like me, as I’m looking for a book to buy, and if I don’t know anything about the author, I see which cover looks most interesting, and I buy that one.

            Almost instinctually we do the same thing with people.  We look at how prosperous they are, how handsome or beautiful they look, what kind of a job they have, and we assume by the cover of money, physical traits, or occupation that God loves them and has blessed them.  While those who lack prosperity, beauty, or a job we treat as if they have done something wrong and God is simply giving them the justice they deserve.

A bronze statue of David after he
beheaded Goliath from the
Tower of David, Jerusalem

            If this describes you at all, and I think it describes all of us at some points in our life, even the way we view our own life, then we can put ourselves into the role of Samuel in the first reading, who assumes that God’s choice as king must be the most handsome, the strongest, the fittest son of Jesse.  Now, Samuel was one of the greatest prophets in Israel, even if this wasn’t his best moment.  So we might not feel so bad.  But the other people who assumed that outwards prosperity was a sign of divine benevolence were the Pharisees from the Gospel today.  They assumed, because the man was born blind, that he or his parents had done something horribly wrong to merit this divine punishment. 

            Samuel at least didn’t have the benefit of the book of Job, so we can let him off the hook a little more easily than the Pharisees, who would have been familiar with the story of Job, who, though he had done nothing wrong, was allowed to endure horrible afflictions to his family, the loss of his livelihood, and even physical disease to see if his love of God was pure, or just based on earthly prosperity.  The Pharisees should have known better.  But they dismiss the man born blind as a sinner, as cursed by God.

            We still struggle with equating earthly blessings with divine favor.  If we have a good job, if we have a good family, if life is relatively easy, then we assume God loves us more.  But as soon as those so-called measures of divine favor are taken away, we assume that we have done something wrong, and that God is displeased with us. 

            The reality is that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  Some people seemingly have everything: a good job, lots of money, a handsome family, popularity, and any of the ways by which the world judges favor.  And yet, to whom much is given, much will be expected.  Sometimes what those “favors” mask are real struggles in living out the faith, in being faithful to God, in seeing the world as God sees it.  Sometimes the prosperous are really spiritually blind.  While those who have very few or even none of those “favors” have a deep and abiding relationship with God, and rely on Him because they have nothing else on which to rely.  While they seem blind, they, like the man born blind, recognize God as He comes to them, ready to accept His healing.

            The one who proves this the most is Jesus Himself.  On Good Friday we’ll hear from the Prophet Isaiah: “Even as many were amazed at him, so marred was his look beyond human semblance and his appearance beyond that of the sons of man…[and] there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him.  He was spurned and avoided by the people, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those from whom people hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.”  We have a God who became man.  He did not come as a prince, or as a wealthy merchant, powerful and rich as He was, but instead placed Himself in the family of a carpenter, who was too poor to offer the usual sacrifices to the Lord.  We have a God who allowed Himself to be beat, crowned with thorns, stripped naked, and hung on a cross; a man who was cursed, as St. Paul says citing another passage in Scripture: “Cursed be he who hangs from a tree” so that we might receive the blessings of God’s eternal life of the Kingdom. 

But God’s blessing was never taken away from Jesus, despite his poverty, despite his death in utter shame and disgrace.  Jesus remained the source from whom all blessings flow, even though we thought of Him as accursed.  And so we cannot assume that because life seems to be going well, our souls are ready for heaven.  It could, in fact, be the opposite, if we rely on ourselves and not on God.  We cannot assume that because we suffer some shame, like the man born blind, that God is punishing us.  Because, from all eternity, God planned to allow that man to be born blind so that Jesus could reveal His true nature by the healing of a man born blind, a healing which led that man to believe in Jesus and worship Him. 

The way to know that we are being blessed by God, no matter what the trials, no matter whether or not the world thinks we are favored, is to believe in Jesus and act accordingly.  Then, at the end of time, we will be able to judge a book by its cover, because those who lived contrary to the will of God and separated themselves from Him will suffer eternally in hell, while those who followed Jesus and lived as a faithful disciple will receive their glorified body in the eternal banquet of heaven.  Blessed are those who are called to the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb.