Lord, that I may see again!

WORD 2day: Monday, 33rd week in Ordinary time

November 16, 2020: Revelation 1:1-4, 2:1-5; Luke 18: 35-43

Repent and get back to your original ways, invites the first reading today. With a plenty of good will and an abundance of spirit we begin something new and good... just imagìne the day of our first communion, for some confirmation, for some others the day of religious consecration and for others the day of your wedding! But in a short while the energy drains, the spirit goes faint and a mere good will becomes drastically insufficient. The reason: we are not attentive enough to note the initial changes that happen...we remain so insensitive to what is happening within us that we are caught unawares at a much crucial time. That is why the prayer today: "Lord grant that we may see again!" (Cf. Lk 18:41).

Staying in touch with the Lord keeps us in touch with ourselves, to constantly check our pride, insensitivities, arrogance, unforgiving attitude, judgmental tendencies, loose talks and compromises against true love: these are the blindnesses that set in, so gradually that we do not even realise it! The first reading tells us: I have this complaint to make; you have less love now than you used to! How many spouses have this to tell each other. How many of us have this to tell ourselves, with regard to some good work we began with all enthusiasm, but fell apart in the process!

Going from bad to worse, at a point of time, we become so blind that we do not recognise what sad levels we have reached. And it is the Lord alone who can restore the original spirit by enabling us to see... empowering us to realise and restart... "make us see again!" The first reading again gently instructs us: think where you were before you fell...before you lost your interest...before you got dissipated... before your interests began to wobble... think where you were and repent and do as you used to at first.

We are reaching the end of this liturgical year. It is a time to evaluate our journey thus far, not to get discouraged or merely to judge ourselves, but to gently remind ourselves of our initial fervour and start again! It is time now that each of us make it our prayer: Lord, that I may see again!