Spritual eyesight

In today's Gospel, Jesus cured the beggar of his blindness.  Many people were familiar with the beggar who was at the city gate.  So, they were surprised when suddenly he could see.  This miracle caused disagreement about who this Jesus was.   The Pharisees said this man Jesus is not from God.  But the beggar said he is a prophet

Our eyesight is very important to us and most of us see pretty well.  I wouldn't be able to read the Gospel and this homily if I didn't see well.  But it is only important during our short lifetime here on earth,  maybe 100 years.

But, what about our spiritual eyesight?  This impacts our eternal life - forever and ever.  Do we know Jesus and his church?  Do we believe the truths that Jesus and his church teaches?  Even the hard truths?

Jesus cured the spiritual eyesight of the beggar.  The beggar said: "I do believe, Lord."   Our spiritual eyesight, on the other hand, probably has a number of blind spots.  There might be some areas where we always follow His commandments and fully understand the teachings of Jesus' church.  For example, we might not have any problem with the seventh commandment "Thou shalt not steal" because we don't have any interest in stealing.    But, there probably are other commandments and teachings which we struggle with and maybe even tend to ignore.  These are our spiritual blind spots. Many struggle with the sixth commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery" and how it impacts our lives.  We might agree with some teachings of the church in the area of human sexuality but disagree with others.

Our blind spots are likely areas where the secular world and Jesus' church disagree.  We hear day in and day out what the secular world (that is, the devil) is saying.  Eventually, after being brainwashed by movies, TV, sports figures, politicians, and even our friends, we bend our beliefs to match theirs.  One blind spot for many Catholics is contraception.  In fact, the majority of Catholics reject this teaching of Jesus' church and agree with our society.  Some would say "How can artificial contraception be wrong, everybody does it, our church needs to get with the times"?

For many years, I had a blind spot in this area.   For many years,  I followed the teachings of the church based upon obedience but not trust.  This worked fine for me until I was in my early thirties.  Then, after we had our fourth child with our oldest just 6 1/2, I seriously questioned the church's teaching on contraception.  I thought: surely the church doesn't expect me to have a lot more children.  How am I going to send them all to college?  How is my wife going to take care of all of them while I am trying to pay the ever increasing bills?  In short, I was following my plan for life and things seemed to be falling apart.  I was blinded by my pride and just couldn't see that I was wrong and needed to let go and let God - to trust in Him. 

Gradually, over the next few months, with my wife's help, I began to pray and to study on this topic.  My wife and I took some natural family planning classes and we began to understand and to accept the teachings of the church.  Eventually, we were moved by the Holy Spirit to have another child.  

Truly, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I was able to embrace this difficult Church teaching.  I swallowed my pride and humbly decided to trust Jesus and his church with our childbearing.

In the movie, A Few Good Men,   Jack Nickelson says to Tom Cruise "You can't handle the truth!"  I think that would apply to me during my struggles with contraception and to many Catholics today.  We have been blinded.  We just can't handle the truth because we have accepted our society's lies.   

How do we improve our spiritual eyesight?  It takes time.  It doesn't happen overnight.  We need an infusion of grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Deacon Ralph talked about this at our recent mission.  We need to repent of our sins.  We need to get to know Jesus and his church through prayer, scripture study and the sacraments,  especially the Eucharist.  And we need fellowship with other Catholics on the journey.  We should join a small group of men and women and share our spiritual journeys with each other.  We are all in this together.  It is a difficult road that we travel but the reward, eternal life with the father, is well worth the effort.

Who are you following - Jesus towards eternal life or satan, the prince of the world, towards eternal death?   It's your choice and Jesus will respect your free will, your choice. 

Let us pray:  O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things.  Amen