Jesus Changes Our Perception Of Each Other’s Being

March 12, 2015

Thursday of the 3rd week of Lent

Jesus Changes Our Perception Of Each Other’s Being

“I will be your God and you shall be my people.”

Because of Jesus, who has made us children of the Father enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we are called and able to see each other with new eyes.

“Being” is the second “transcendental” all beings have in common. The most basic thing we know about each other is that we are what we are. But Jesus changes the way we see each other as beings.

First, Christians don’t just see each other as fellow human beings; we know we walk in the midst of beings who are divine. In every other Christian whom we see, the Father, Son and Spirit are present, living their divine life. Every other person we see is sharing in their divine life and living on the level of God. We live in an ongoing miracle. We walk in a milieu of mystery. We are in wonderland. Oz can’t even compare with it. If we see with the eyes of faith.

All human appearances are—literally—“mundane.” But if we put on our “faith glasses,” we see everything transformed. People are divine. God is present and acting with them, within them and through them. We are in a world of visible divinity.

This is what it means to be “contemplative.” It means to walk about with open eyes, or to see through the lens of faith. Contemplatives look. They look intently and deeply. They look to see what is there: all that is “visible and invisible.”

And their joy is full.

Do I choose to let Jesus show me others as they are?

Pray: “Lord, let me see your face. Show me yourself in others.”

Practice: Practice seeing everyone through faith-tinted glasses.

Discuss: How can we see God in all who have received the divine life of grace?