Looking In

Have you noticed that we barely look at each other anymore?  We are so busy looking down at our smart phones, iPads, and iPods that we scarcely ever notice humanity in the flesh.   Our techno-toys are a great way to avoid seeing what we’d rather evade.  In other words, they give us a great excuse to look away.   I think of the times I look away:  from the homeless to avoid seeing a broken world; from those physically or intellectually different  to avoid feeling discomfort; from the mirror to avoid noticing the imperfections in my own body. 

Lent is a time which calls us to not look away, but to look more closely, to peer inside to see all that we have been avoiding in ourselves and in our world.  But, looking goes both ways.  We are called not only to look and see, but also to allow ourselves--our whole selves--to be seen.   Those who are in love know what it’s like to look at each other with eyes of love, to look at the imperfections and to see only love.  It’s that kind of trusting relationship that allows us the vulnerability to uncover ourselves, flaws and all, before the eyes of our beloved.   It’s this kind of trusting relationship to which God calls each of us.  For God looks at us with the eyes of a lover and gazes at us with awe and wonder.  God's loving, penetrating eyes are so powerful, we become healed and whole in God’s sight.  We need only to trust the loving eyes of God.

It’s this kind of trust that enables the Elect to celebrate the scrutinies, the second of which  they celebrate this Sunday.  The scrutiny calls them to uncover those inner flaws, sins and failings, and to trust that God’s love is bigger than their biggest imperfection.    May we, along with the Elect, learn to trust more deeply the heart of God whose loving gaze is ever upon us.  Amen!