Right now, I have a pounding migraine. It is actually a bit hard to write because the light hurts my eyes. I also am experiencing an allergy attack; runny nose, sneezing, irritated throat. In addition, I think I pulled a muscle in my back, or maybe I slept wrong last night; either way, it hurts when I bend over or genuflect. What a miserable list. My next sentence, though, might shock you. I have an enormous amount of joy right now. No, it is not because of some other circumstance that overrides these unpleasant experiences. It is, rather, because of my perspective.
This morning's gospel reading spoke of having eyes of "light" or eyes of "darkness". In other words, Jesus was encouraging us to see things that way that God sees them. To view all of our existence through the eyes of our blessed Redeemer. So when I think about my discomfort, I might get a bit annoyed by it, but the solution is not just to make it go away, but rather to trust in God's goodness and love. He is allowing (or maybe causing) this discomfort for my good. He is loving and therefore is showing me love (even when I cannot see it clearly). Rabbi Kushner who said that God means well but is unable to help us with our problems, is worshipping a different God than the one of the Catholic (and ancient Jewish) faith.
I am reminded of the story about the man from the big city who was criticizing the man from the country for just sitting on his front porch and watching cars go by, "I couldn't live like that. It is way too boring. I need to be alive and active." The man from the country said, "I couldn't live like you. Always so busy that you don't have time to sit on the porch and watch the cars go by." Two different perspectives on the same event, and much of the difference comes from their point of view. Regardless of whom you side with in that story, we all must acknowledge that our perspective determines our mood.
For someone who is experiencing hard times, he can view them as just a series of bad stuff; or he can view them as an opportunity to experience the loving hand of God in a new way. The first part of today's gospel reading, before the reference to having "eyes of light", speaks to us about our treasure. Christ tells us that if we treasure things that are passing and solely of this world, then we will be missing out on so much joy. Those things that are temporal and just fade away over time, will always dissappoint us. Seeing those things as important means that our eyes are "dark" and cannot see the beauty and wonder of God's blessings. When we view God's creation through His eyes, we can see the beauty in it, but we see it as a lesser beauty than those things that are eternal.
On our journey through this life, there are many things that can cause us to feel depressed, but none of them is stronger than Christ our Lord. He is genuinely able to overcome all those trials, and will help us to overcome them if we will just work at seeing things as He sees them. Then we can gain the proper perspective. Difficulties are then not seen as causes of depression, they are seen as the hand of God seeking to teach us something. To shut ourselves out from God's perspective (especially in the area of trials) is to shut ourselves out from His grace.
I usually write about something that is bad (a "dragon" that needs to be slain), so this post might seem a bit different. I suppose it may be the case that I am writing about the dragon of being gloomy, but that is not the primary focus. It is the joy itself that I am speaking of. What an amazing blessing it is to be able to strive for that joy, and to find it in Christ. Let us each seek to remove the "scales" from our eyes that darken them, and instead plead with our gracious God to give us the light of what He sees. Only in this way can we stand with joy in the midst of the worst challenges that the world and the devil can throw at us.
