Resurrection Living: What do you see?

“As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.”

Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.”

(excerpted from Mark 10:46-52, NIV)

One quality of Resurrection living is a new way of seeing: recognizing the Holy in the midst of our everyday lives.

Song: "Morning has broken" (Cat Stevens): https://youtu.be/we-n-Zmglt0

“We are responsible for most of our own blindness and deafness.

Yet the spirit of God goes on renewing the gift.” (John V. Taylor)

In her book Lost in Wonder, Esther deWaal writes that, in the above quote, Taylor is referring to seeing the "beyondness" at the heart of things, and how, in spite of our often closed hearts and minds, God is continually offering us the gift of new sight, as Jesus offers Bartimaeus.

deWaal writes, “This is seeing, but seeing beyond. It is seeing with the eyes of the heart; it is seeing with the inner eye, which recognizes inward beauty; it is seeing with rinsed eyes, eyes washed clear in contemplation."

DeWaal goes on to share a story about Thomas Merton, in which he is outside, with a young friend, with cameras, taking pictures as they walk together. After some time, Merton scolds his friend for approaching things too quickly. He tells him to stop looking and to begin seeing:

“Because looking means you already have something in mind for your eye to find; you’ve set out in search for your desired object and have closed off everything else presenting itself along the way. But seeing is being open and receptive to what comes to the eye; your vision total and not targeted.”

After the resurrection, even Jesus’ friends did not always recognize him: Mary in the garden, two followers on the road to Emmaus. Perhaps, overcome by grief, their eyes were closed to the miracle right in front of them. But through their encounters with the resurrected Jesus, they were able to “see.” Mary recognizes Jesus as he calls her name "Mary." And the followers on the road realize it is Jesus as he breaks bread and shares it with them.

This new vision takes time. In explaining her famous paintings of huge flowers, artist Georgia O’Keefe explains “Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and it takes time – like to have a friend takes time.”

In this season of Resurrection we are invited to slow down, and open to what is before us -- rather than blindly rushing through life; where the goal seems to be getting through our lives as quickly as possible, grabbing whatever we can on the way, and not wasting time. In this hurry, we risk missing the beauty and holiness of the ordinary hidden within the moments of our daily lives.

But what if we pause, linger... and notice what is waiting, right in front of us?

If one looks long enough at almost anything,

looks with absolute attention at a flower,

a stone,

the bark of a tree,

grass, snow, a cloud,

something like revelation takes place.

Something is ‘given'... (May Sarton)

Author Macrina Wiederkehr writes, " If you want to see... you will need to slow down. You live in a world of theophanies. Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb.... but this can happen only if you are willing unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure."

What is the treasure waiting to be harvested in your life today? What is hiding in the ordinary moments and places?

Slow down... take time to really see what is in front of you. When we see with the eyes of our hearts, we are forever changed, like Bartimaeus, who does not rush off after being healed, but chooses to follow Jesus, along the way.

Song: "For the Beauty of the Earth" (John Rutter): https://youtu.be/JVQFEgT7E6c

Blessing:

May your inner eye

See through the surfaces

And glean the real presence

Of everything that meets you.

May your soul beautify

The desire of your eyes

That you might glimpse

The infinity that hides

In the simple sights

That seem worn

To your usual eyes.

(excerpted from: “For the senses” ~John O’Donohue)

Sources:

Taylor, John V., A Matter of Life and Death, London: SCM Press, 1986, p. 7

DeWaal, Esther, Lost in Wonder, Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2003, pp. 56, 64.

Sarton, May, Journal of a Solitude, New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., p. 99.

Wiederkehr, Macrina, A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary, New York: HarperCollins, 1988.

O'Donohue, John, To Bless the Space Between Us, New York: Doubleday, 2008, p. 40.

(source unknown for the painting above of Jesus healing Bartimaeus)