Losing the Vision

The psalmist from the texts in the Roman Catholic Lectionary today declares that the people are suffering hard things but that he can still see the banner of God and he still can remember when God was more intimate with him and when God was the valiant effort of his people to oppose evil. Friar Jude Winkler uses the passage from the Second Book of Kings to unpack the history of the exile of Jews from the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians and their replacement by pagan people. This political action was the consequence of the Northern Kingdom turning away from their tradition of reliance on Providence to trusting in political schemes of their leaders. The intermarriage of Jew and pagan lead to the Samaritan people who, even to Jesus time, were despised by the Jews of Judah. The warning of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew against judging others is illustrated in other ways in the Gospel by the parable of the Good Samaritan and the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well. Friar Jude instructs that the understanding of individual people about the nature of their Gift to be in relationship with God is different. Our own salvation history and that of many saints is one of discovery of the depth of the Gift we are and the delight in which we are seen by God. As our understanding of Life grows, in contact with the Holy Spirit, our response to the graciousness and mercy of God allows us to see the log in our eye before we react with hypocrisy to instruct our neighbour to remove the spec from his eye. Pointing to God and moving in that direction is our mission. That motion will show our decision concerning actions that are in conflict with the Way. We keep the vision when we refrain from judging how others are responding to their understanding of the call to intimacy with God.