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March 19, 2023Today the prophet Samuel and Jesus, both remind us of the folly of relying on our habitual ways of seeing, if we wish to see the Reign of God at work in our midst. All around us, the Holy Spirit daily calls and anoints chosen servants, even as Jesus continues to open blind eyes for the glory of God, and yet we do not see. Every day the Kingdom of God is unveiled in our midst, but our habitual ways of seeing the world effectively blind us.
Roughly twenty-five years ago, as I made my way from a parking lot to a supermarket entrance, I saw a peculiar-looking man in a rumpled suit standing by the door handing out business cards. I immediately thought this was someone I should avoid if I did not want to become entangled in an awkward and likely bizarre conversation. As I did my best to avoid him while entering the supermarket, he reached over and handed me a business card without saying a word. I looked down at the card and read: "If you meet me and forget me, you have lost nothing. But if you meet Jesus Christ and forget him, you have lost everything.”
Flabbergasted, I instantly shifted from a state of blind self-absorption to one of sight-restoring astonishment and holy joy. Jesus himself had just written and personally handed me a love letter. I put it in my wallet and kept it there for two decades until it was in tatters. Throughout the many years, I held onto it, months or even a couple of years might go by without ever looking at it, but at unexpected moments I would stumble onto it all over again when I most needed it. At other times, I would intentionally look for it in my wallet to be reminded of the Lord’s nearness.
Over time, I came to see that it was not simply that the Lord had handed me a love letter through the agency of an unwelcome stranger, but rather that the stranger was himself the love letter. Perhaps the card he handed me should have read: "If you meet me and forget me, then you have met and forgotten Christ.” As Lent continues to draw us ever nearer to Easter, may Jesus open our eyes as he once opened the eyes of the man born blind, that we may ever more readily see him standing near us, revealed in the ordinary bread and wine of the brothers, sisters, and unwelcome strangers we only think we see.
