“Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart.” Have you ever read this and wondered, ‘God, what about all of David’s sins around the adultery with Bathsheba even though he had so many wives already, the murder of her husband, neglect of his sons – one of whom would feel so betrayed that he would start a rebelion and civil war, only to name a few of the more serious and recorded ones?’ I have. I have also realized that seeing people, myself included, through a lens of success, regardless if it’s worldly or moral accomplishment, is one more way that humanity sees only the appearance of others. God, however, saw past this appearance of failure in David and claimed that this man was indeed a man after his own heart.
Does this mean that David’s sins are not that important? David’s personal justification is between God and David. We have the witness in the Scriptures of David’s desire for reform, unity, and mercy and his sins as a warning. In other words, we have a witness that even if we fall hard in sin, God’s mercy is there if we humbly return. We cannot absolve the sins in our own lives any more than the blind man in the Gospel could heal himself so that he could see.
The Pharisees and towns folk could not believe that the man who was born blind was healed by Jesus or that he was even the same man at all. Many did not believe that the man who could now see was the same man that used to beg. They judged by a perceived appearance of moral failure displayed by the man’s blindness and made up their minds that God could not or would not heal any person like that. The chaos and frustration that followed the miracle of this blind man finally being able to see points to a deeper desire that God has for His children throughout all of salvation history – He wants us to see each individual as He sees their hearts. This is indicated by Jesus’s Response to the Pharisees. “Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not also blind, are we?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.’”
Even though we can do nothing on our own to find healing, it still has to start with us. We must admit we are blind and need to see. If we don’t, we will see God’s work as chaos, it will trip us up and we will not be able to believe or recognize the miracles around us. If we do not, then we will look a lot like the disbelieving Pharisees and neighbors of the man who could see clearly. May Jesus recreate our eyes to see as God sees, think more and more like Him, and act more and more like Him. God bless.
Daily Reading
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Reading 1 Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95 King Nebuchadnezzar said:“”Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,that you will not serve my god,or worship the golden statue that I set up?Be ready…
Saint of the Day
Saint Ludovico of Casoria
The first part of Saint Ludovico of Casoria’s life was somewhat “ordinary,” but not the second. Having had what he called a mystical experience, he began establishing institutions for all kinds of people in need. He even founded two religious communities.