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December 29, 2021Sight. Our eyes can give us the gift of sight. Some of us have considerably better sight than others. Others have no sight at all. Glasses, contact lenses, or surgeries can help improve our vision, but it is ultimately out of our complete control. We cannot ask the impossible from our eyes. The eyes of our soul are different. We train them to notice God’s goodness in what surrounds us. Over time we develop a gift of sight that increasingly helps us to see God at work in our lives and the lives of our brothers and sisters who surround us.
These two readings speak of the ability or inability to see, of being in darkness or in the light. “Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.” This person would not yet see clearly with his or her soul due to the darkness of sin. The contrast is with Simeon, who saw more than the ordinary—to what would have typically looked like an ordinary family seeking to complete their post-birth purification. Instead, he saw the savior of the world. Simeon’s soul was in the light, for he saw beyond the external and noticed where God was at work around him. The baby that Mary was holding was not ordinary but the Messiah. And he foretold to the Virgin Mary that she, too, would suffer. He could have only seen that if he was in the light and allowed God to show him what surrounded him.
As preachers who follow the footsteps of St. Dominic, we are called to be the “light of the Church” and help others come to this light through our preaching. We must see our whole life as preaching, by witness and word, which demands that we ourselves come closer to Him who is the light. Thus, we will recognize Christ in the Eucharistic bread, receiving Him into our soul, and praying with Simeon: “your word has been fulfilled.” We will recognize God at work in our friends, family, coworkers, and those we see in passing. Let us pray today to come closer to the light of Christ, that we may see others as God sees them.