Seeing and Perceiving

I was born with a condition called congenital cataracts. It is a disease of the eyes where a section of the eye becomes blurry and nothing can be clear in that section. I had surgery in 2002 that corrected this issue. If you looked into my eyes on the outside, my eyes looked normal, but I was half blind. There is a big difference between seeing and perceiving. If there was a commotion in the street, I would always ask my family: “What’s happening?” They knew that I still couldn’t see, even if we were all looking in the same direction, so they would describe to me what they saw, so I can perceive and understand what’s going on.

Seeing is not always perceiving. Did Adam and Eve see and know the importance of obeying God? We know that they eventually tasted the forbidden fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. They saw it, but they did not perceive that by not obeying God, they would come to know the good by the loss of it, and they would come to know evil by the sense of it. In retrospect we would say, if only they could see and perceive and understand what was at stake, they would not have disobeyed God and tasted it. This scenario is also seen in the last days of Moses. He had walked with Israelites for 40 years in the desert, and now the promised land was in sight, but he was told he would die shortly and would not live to set his feet in the promised land. So, he had a long speech for Israelites. I am paraphrasing: “You have a choice: Either, love God and walk in his ways, obey his Commandments, you will live and be blessed. But if you turn your hearts away from the Lord, things will no longer be okay, in fact, it will be the opposite of life and growth which is death.” It sounds like the words of a parent to a teenager, but seriously, we make a myriad of choices every day! Some of those choices, unfortunately are not up to standards in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Our Gospel lesson presents us with such challenge: Do we see? If so, do we perceive? We might think: “I am not a murderer like Hitler! or I didn’t commit adultery! but Jesus says: “look the human problem is much deeper than. It is the problem of passions and desires.” Yes, you might not be like Hitler but if you are angry with your brother and hate him, you have murdered him in your heart! Or you have committed adultery in your heart if you lust after someone. The problem is much deeper from within our hearts. The world is filled with things that appeal to our senses on its shelves. We need to have a strong inner restriction, eyes that see and perceive so we don’t choose those. We need good eyes to perceive further the consequences even before we choose.

Our culture has a problem of boredom and the world is ready to entertain us with all kinds of distracting nonsense on its shelves. Let us not choose those passions like Adam and Eve with the forbidden fruit on the shelf of the garden. Let us not choose the passions and carnal desires, which do not lead us to a good place. The enjoyment of it does not last long, but surely the consequences often last forever. In retrospect, one would say like the prodigal son, If only I knew, I would have chosen otherwise. Hence the importance of the wisdom of “Seeing and Perceiving”.

Look beyond the value on the shelf, See and perceive. Paul told Corinthians that he could not speak to them as spiritual people. He saw them as people who are still in hot pursuit of the passions, to fulfill sensual desires instead of people who by the grace of God pursue renewal of their spiritual lives. Paul likened them to babies in Christ, in need of milk instead of solid food. In Paul’s thinking, it’s obvious that our choices show our level of growth in Christ. Are we leaning towards the world entertaining us and massaging us with its culture that drowns any growth of the interior spiritual life? Then we are babies in Christ. Are we leaning towards shunning the culture of the world that takes us away from spiritual activities, like prayer, bible study… if so, we are being built up in Christ! So how are we different from the non-Christian world? Are we seeing and perceiving? Or we are seeing and not perceiving that some of our choices are leading us away from life?

Lord Jesus, open our eyes, so we can see and perceive, and make choices that are in line with the Kingdom of Heaven, choices that lead us to life and growth in you and love of you. Amen.