How do we see with 20/20 vision

We are on the alert for dangers that may present themselves in our daily lives. Every day there is something new that we are called to focus our attention upon. Amid the things that can distract us from being authentic to our own calling how do we live amid a world of contradictions? This can become a pressing issue when we feel exposed to the temptations that confront us each day: to be powerful; to be spectacular and to be relevant. They can be like those that faced Jeremiah when his friends watch out for any mistake he may make. Jeremiah has the desire to meet God who probes the depths of his life. This is not just about having the right answers but the willingness to ask the right questions. Jeremiah wants to know how a God of justice will deliver the souls of the needy from evil men.

The theme of being a light on the hill seeks to uncover not our wrongdoing but the reality of God’s glory. The desire of God is not for us to be lost in darkness but to be drawn into the light of the day. Jesus encourages his disciples not just to focus on the material realities of life that if taken from us can feel like death. He looks at a more fundamental loss of losing our sight of God who walks with us in those losses. So often when evil befalls us, we can start to doubt our own worth and yet Jesus proclaims that we are worth more than thousands of sparrows. He allows us to invite God close and to declare God’s presence even in our darkest night.

So how do we acknowledge our need of God even in this darkest night. Paul grapples with the reality of the sin of Adam and how there was something deeper than just breaking the law but the breaking of a relationship with God. We can recognise the reality of the sin can cause a people to separate themselves from a God who seeks them out. This is why it is important to confess mortal sins not to draw attention to the sinful act but to address the injury caused by the act. This can be like a mortal blow that threatens death to the soul.

This is not easy to confess because in many ways the evil spirit seeks to play a three-card trick: to tempt us into wrongdoing, then to keep it secret and then pretend that he is more powerful than God in keeping us hostage to the effects of the sin.  This is acknowledged in the rules of St Ignatius in the first week of the spiritual exercises where he recognised the goodness of God and the reality of the effects of sin. St Ignatius helps to understand the internal movements of consolation and desolation that seek us to encounter God rather than leaving us isolated from the grace that we need to overcome sin. This is not to remove us from the world but so that in the world we seek to be people who can heal the wounds of sin and division.

Thus, we seek to draw confidence that allows us to adjust our vision to see God more clearly. The focus here is not on our sins but on the person of Jesus who seeks to meet us. It is this encounter that transforms us that brings life into focus so that we can see with 20/20 vision.

I will carry you on Eagles wings

In the Hobbit, Eagles seem to turn up at the right time to rescue Gandalf and his friends from danger. Tolkien often imagined that the Eagles would carry you towards the dawn of a new day. He said in reflecting on the Eagles, “May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.” It echoes the word of God calling to Moses on the mountain, “How I have carried you on eagle’s wings and carried you to myself. There is a deep bond between God and his people in which he seeks to embrace the themes of hope, freedom, and connection with the creative power of God.

This is where Paul writing to the Romans also emphasises how God seeks to rescue us even when we seem to at odds with him and might even be considered God’s enemies. It was this desire of God that sought to cover the distance between us through the profound act of reconciliation. This was the giving of a life for the sake of another so that they could experience the joy of God that makes us a priestly people and a consecrated nation. We are filled with a joyful trust in God through Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.

This is a continuing event that hear described in the Gospel of St Matthew where the twelve disciples are called to cast out unclean spirits and heal people. The naming of the disciples whom he commissions to proclaim that the Kingdom of God is nearby. This saving mission is initially reserved to the lost sheep of the House of Israel where we notice how Jesus commissions them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out devils. This is considered a gift that they have received to pass on to others.

St Anthony of Padua reflected on this Gospel passage by saying, “So the religious soul finds in the heart of Jesus a secure refuge against the wiles and attacks of Satan, and a delightful retreat. But we must not rest merely at the entrance to the hole in the rock, we must penetrate its depths. At the mouth of the deep hollow, at the mouth of the wound in his side we shall, indeed, find the precious blood which has redeemed us. This blood pleads for us and demands mercy for us. But the religious soul must not stay at the entrance. When she has heard, and understood, the voice of the divine blood, she must hasten to the very source from which it springs, into the very innermost sanctuary of the heart of Jesus. There she will find light, peace, and ineffable consolations (https://www.azquotes.com/quote/893390).”

Yet he also cautioned those who listened to him when he said, “Men will surrender to the spirit of the age. They will say that if they had lived in our day, faith would be simple and easy. But in their day, they will say, things are complex; the Church must be brought up to date and made meaningful to the day's problems. (https://www.azquotes.com/quote/893390.)” This was said eight hundred years ago and yet we face the same challenges of proclaiming the truth with joy and simplicity. We seek to be the person that God called us to be rather than trying to imitate someone else.

Each of us in our own ways are called to be drawn closer to God. This is not by striving to be powerful, spectacular, or relevant but seeking to allow the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to form us and guide us. The Kingdom of God is within you it is in your heart and on your lips that you may live the truth with joy and peace.

Everyone is born as an original, but many people end up dying as photocopies

 

When I travelled the Camino back in 2003, we entered a small village called O Cebreiro. This is a place where one of the Eucharistic miracles took place. The story goes that in 1300 that on winter night with a blizzard raging a farmer attended the Church for Mass. The priest who had to travel up the hill from the valley below had grown cynical over the years and doubted the real presence of Christ. He wondered if it was worth braving the elements to celebrate Mass for just one person. After he prayed the words of consecration the bread became actual human flesh and the wine became blood. It is said that the statue of Mary bowed in adoration of the miracle. Both the host and the chalice were preserved and Queen Isabella commissioned reliques in which they could be venerated in 1486. The miracle was recorded in two Papal Documents (known as a bull) by Pope Innocent VIII in 1487and Pope Alexander VI in 1496.

Whenever we celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, we are called to reflect on the statement made by Jesus where he states that “if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you will not have life within you.” This is a statement about how Jesus is present in the bread and wine that are offered at Mass that becomes His Body and Blood. This is not just a metaphor but a reality of how intimately he desires for His life to become our life too. Much as when people give blood at the blood bank it is given freely for us to be drawn into a deeper communion with the Body of Christ. This is not taken by force but out of his total self-giving for the life of the world. His desire is that as we receive this food for the journey, we seek to draw life from Him that draws us closer to eternal life.

It was this desire of Saint Carlo Acutis to not waste time where he wished to apply his skills of information technology, computers, and the internet. He was inspired by two inspirations from reflecting on the book of Job. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living the life of someone else.” And “It is only by saying ‘no’ that you can concentrate on the things that are truly important.”

Pope Francis echoed these sentiments when he said in Christus Vivit (Christ is alive) when he addressed young people. He saw that many young people, wanting to be different, really end up being like everyone else, running after whatever the powerful set before them with the mechanisms of consumerism and distraction. In this way they do not bring forth the gifts the Lord has given them; they do not offer the world those unique personal talents that God has given to each of them. As a result, Carlo said, ‘Everyone is born as an original, but many people end up dying as photocopies.’ Do not let that happen to you! (Christus Vivit 106).

He also understood that not all goods are equal but present themselves to us in a hierarchy of greater and lesser value. Only by saying ‘no’ to a lesser good can we say ‘yes’ to something greater. In the light of the rapid expansion of AI, Pope Leo has written the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. At its heart is the discovery of Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In him, the grandeur of our humanity is safeguarded and brought to fulfilment. True progress always springs from a heart open to others, an intelligence willing to listen, and a will that seeks what unites rather than what divides. For Carlo, information technology was to be seen for what it is: a tool to share the Good News, to connect, and to do good. In this way, he stands as a model for young people, and indeed for all of us, in how to use technology without being manipulated or controlled by it. Carlo saw the Eucharist as the stairway to heaven through his faithful participation in Mass and Adoration. He often said, “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of Heaven.” And again: “If we get in front of the sun, we get sun tans, but when we get in front of Jesus in the Eucharist, we become saints.” It also inspired him to create a website that documented these Eucharistic Miracles.

As we prepare for the Eucharistic Congress in Sydney in 2028, may we open our hearts ever more deeply to the real presence of Christ in our midst. May he draw us closer to himself, renew our hope, and make our lives a living witness to the joy and promise of heaven.