DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Why does sometimes the world appear so dismal?

And Christ taught us, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your vision is clear, your whole body also is full of light. But when it is poor, your body is full of darkness. Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness.…” – Luke 11:34-35

When I remove my eyeglasses that which is in the distance becomes blurry. When I go without my eyeglasses, my eyes are strained, and my mind begins to ache. Truly without the assistance of my eyeglasses, my mortal vision is diminished, and my experience of life is lessened.

We live in a dusty world, people kicking up dust over the slightest disagreement. We live in a smoky world, cannons both actual and figurative firing away. We live in a world of smokestacks and leaf blowers, no wonder our eyes are filled with irritants. And when the eyes are irritated, the world appears all the more irritated and the world within ourselves irritated all the more.

When we focus on the darkness, we are darkened within. When we focus on the evil, all we see is evil. When we focus on the anger, the anger consumes.

But take heart, for when we cleanse our own eyes of the dust of prejudice, bitterness, envy, suspicion, negativity, vengeance, and the smoke of war, when we wash our eyes in the merciful waters of grace, we then can behold the wonders at the work and the beauty that is present all around us and even within us. We have washed the windows of our souls and the Light of God is radiant.

And when the Light is abundant, the latent image of God within us then appears; and when the Light is abundant, we grow.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz