“God sees things in you that you don’t see in yourself.” (p 53 “Rediscover Jesus”)
What do we see when we look in the mirror? We often look most closely at the flaws that are readily apparent or we look vainly at only the beauty and ignore those parts that are not pleasing. When we look beyond the outward, the physical and immediate, we are called to look deeper. In our spiritual journey, when we seek to see how God sees, we can, just as we do with the outward, look critically and seek only the flaws (the sins) in our life or we desire only to see the good and discount the things we need to work on and correct as we, in our vanity, believe we are good enough.
We are reminded that God sees us as we are. He sees our sins. He sees our blessings. He sees our victories and our defeats. He sees all of this and yet beyond all of this into the goodness and holiness in which He created us to be and “sees things in you that you don’t see in yourself.”
God sees in pure love. God invites us to see in this same pure love as we look into the mirror of our soul where we are called to reflect the light and the love of God. Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that this seeing of pure love is the natural call to experience the divine. “No longer is it a question, then, of a “commandment” imposed from without and calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others. Love grows through love. Love is “divine” because it comes from God and unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a “we” which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is “all in all”” (1 Cor 15:28). (#18 Deus Caritas Est)
In Lent we respond to this deep calling to be in union with another through God. This is the calling of each vocation to be joined in love and hope. But we also must know, looking into our soul, the need for reconciliation and forgiveness in all our relationships. God seeks to heal, to unite, to join in the eternity of love where sin is conquered and robbed of its power. This deep need for self-reflection draws us closer to the cross where we in vulnerable love know God sees all and to allow others to glimpse into our desire to be blessed and loved were Thomas à Kempis notes, “It is often good for us to have others know our faults and rebuke them for it gives us greater humility. When a man humbles himself because of his faults, he easily placates those about him and readily appeases those who are angry with him.” (Book 2 #3, “The Imitation of Christ”)
When we learn to see ourselves as God sees, to love as God loves, we open our hearts to his graciousness, “If your heart were right, then every created thing would be a mirror of life for you and a book of holy teaching…If there be joy in the world, the pure of heart certainly posses it; and if their be anguish and affliction anywhere, an evil conscience knows it too well.” (Book 2 #4, “The Imitation of Christ”) Because when we see as God sees then we see the blessings even when it is surrounded by hurt and sin…trusting in the power of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
God Bless
Fr. Mark