~ When I was in 5th grade, I was at West Port Plaza with my family at Christmastime, and I said to my mom, look at the Christmas tree on top of the Gold building with all the white lights! She said, white lights? Don’t you see the colored lights? I said nope. And the next thing I knew I was at the eye doctor and had glasses.
The impact was immediate and powerful. Colors were more vibrant. I stopped squinting, which I hadn’t known I’d been doing. The words on the chalkboard became perfectly clear. Everything was crisper and brighter whenever I went outside. The world was new. Nothing had changed, but everything had changed.
As we gather on this cold winter weekend, we hear Jesus teaching his disciples, and us, that famous lesson we call the Beatitudes. And like a new pair of glasses, the Beatitudes can change the way we see the world.
For Jesus’ first disciples expecting a warrior king who would put down the Romans, for us today who long for a just peace, the words can be jarring: Meekness? Mourning? Poverty and persecution? Not what we want to hear. But, friends, there is something bigger and better at work here! Stick with me!
Whatever vision we have in our literal eyes, the Beatitudes offer us a better way to perceive the world and ourselves.
Without the lens of the Beatitude, looking through the eyes of this world, the news directs our attention to wealthy people in powerful positions – their private jets, over-the-top parties, and general bad behavior.
Without the lens of the Beatitudes, online algorithms serve up beautiful influencers performing happiness, health, and success, and their big homes, exotic vacations, and professional success distorts our desires and values.
Without the lens of the Beatitude, the constant news that fills our tv screens and timelines seems frightening and senseless and hopeless.
But with the Beatitudes on, when we see the world with eyes of faith and with the vision of Jesus, our own vision corrects. Life comes into focus. The distortions go away. Domineering leaders, smiling influencers, and glamorous celebrities are suddenly small and dim. What looked so shiny is now dull when viewed through the eyes of the Gospel.
Looking with eyes of faith, seeing through the lens of the Beatitudes, what was invisible comes into focus: millions of people around the globe hurting, women in crisis pregnancies, people in prisons and detention centers, families sheltering in place for fear of ICE – all of them turning to God because that’s the only place to turn. These countless people, beloved by God but invisible in a throwaway culture; their faces become clear and radiant through the lens of the Beatitudes.
Seeing the world with the eyes of faith, anonymous people and their hidden acts of compassion are suddenly visible, brilliant and shining.
People doing the ordinary, hard, daily work of caring for children and elders.
The social worker slogging through paperwork to help someone access housing or mental health treatment.
School teachers quietly finding ways for students to have food over holiday break.
The weary foster parent responding to a traumatized child’s outburst with tenderness.
The priests, sisters, and lay Catholics accused of pulling a political stunt when they seek to bring Eucharist to detention centers.
Survivors of clergy abuse and their allies, telling their stories, calling for change – only to be insulted and dismissed.
All of them hungering and thirsting for righteousness, all of them showing mercy, all of them making peace.
Yes, Beatitude lenses change the way we see the world. And they change the way we see ourselves, too. Through the lens of the Beatitudes, the shame I feel, the things I can’t change, my weakness and imperfection, the ways life isn’t what I had hoped – that shame evaporates.
My own aching desire for the world to be set right, for justice and dignity, isn’t just romantic idealism. It becomes holy.
The addictive impulse of outrage, the adrenaline of righteous indignation – they burn away; I’m left with meek tears of lament.
But through Jesus’ presence within us, we can put on the Beatitudes and see ourselves and the world clearly, as Jesus sees. And when we see clearly, we can choose love instead of fear, nonviolence instead of harm, community instead of isolation.
May I propose as you move through life this week, look at yourself, your family, your community, your neighbors, and your enemies through Beatitudes lenses.
What do you see? And how will you choose to act? May this Eucharist we celebrate and share help us to see the world with the eyes of Jesus.
