Feasts, Seasons, Sacraments

Do you see what I see

What do you think the shepherds thought when they arrived at the manger? What about the Magi? Do you think the scene lived up to their expectations and hopes? A poor couple, a new baby, a sordid stable. What else was there to see?

This morning Father Bob Bolser, C.S.V. began the 10 a.m. Mass with an opening reflection. "’Seeing is believing,’ some folks say. But it could also be said, ‘Believing is seeing.’"

He told a story to illustrate his point. His father was born blind. For years and years, young Bob Bolser prayed that his father would receive a miracle, that he would be allowed to see.

"For even the briefest of moments I wanted with all my heart for him to see my face and know what I looked like," Bolser told the congregation.

All the family prayed. Bob’s brother, a pilot in the Air Force, even visited Lourdes and sent home a quart of water from that shrine, but their father remained blind.

"It was years later, after novenas and rosaries and prayers and promises that I finally came to a new realization. Our prayers for my father had been answered a thousand times over. All these years I had longed for him to see what I looked like; and all the while he had always known who I was. I wanted him to see my face; rather, he’d forever known my heart."

After the homily most of the congregation gathered around the altar. We sang out heartily during the Eucharistic Prayer. We held hands at the Our Father, and greeted one another warmly at the Sign of Peace. As the people streamed up to Communion–young and old, various nationalities and ethnic groups, liberals and conservatives, the healthy and the ailing–I realized that during the Mass our vision had indeed improved.

We may have walked into church thinking we were all separate individuals, on our own in this world. Now we were held together with the knowledge that we were one body, a holy people, gathered together by Christ. I wish you and your family 20/20 vision of the heart.

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