The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how terrible that darkness will be!
Matthew 6:22-23 (CEB)
Sometimes I wake up on the wrong side of the bed. From the moment my alarm clock goes off I begin to view the world through the “eyes” of my mood for the day. All interactions seem like a problem and I wonder why the whole world decided to annoy me!
I am sure that I am not alone and after reading this passage this morning I quickly realize that this has been a problem of the human condition since the beginning, our eyes can truly be the lamp for the body, or it can be its darkness.
No wonder Jesus spent a significant time teaching us to “see.”
In order for our eyes to become lamps our inner life needs transformation. This transformation happens when we engage the practices of our faith, especially prayer and searching the scriptures both individually and in community. The practices are avenues for those of us who want to “see” better to encounter God. God’s spirit begins to transform our way of seeing which in turn changes our way of thinking and our way of behaving in the world.
Spiritual writer, Richard Rohr, in his book The Naked Now says:
This new perspective and foundation allows [us] to see things for what they really are – and also for what they are not at all. It is indeed a radical perceptual shift that the tradition would call conversion. (136)
Let us seek the light and become seers of the light. Imagine how effective we would be in our discipleship if we could “see” in the way of Jesus?
May this Lenten season be a season of learning to see. Through the practices of our faith that allow for God’s Spirit to transform our inner life so that we can be more faithful agents of God’s love in the world.