To see or not to see?

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 9th week in Ordinary time

June 1, 2021: Tobit 2: 9-14; Mark 12: 13-17

Tobit loses his sight and lives so for four years or so. Even that did not disturb his wife much but the judgements that Tobit asks her puts her totally at unease. She questions Tobit on his charity lived thus far in life. His tendency to judge the actions of his wife, puts his entire life of charity into doubt. The question that she asks him, 'where is all your charity?', brings out the crux of the message today. 

It is truly charity that helps us see persons as they are. In charity we decide whether to see or not, persons as they are, instead of fixing them into the peg holes we have made for each of them. We are fond of categorising persons, fit them into our scheme of judgements and label them according to our mental make up! This happens much in our daily life, be it in our families, among collegues at work, or religious communites that we live in. Judgements are the first enemies of charity and that is why saintly Mother Teresa of Kolkata made that statement: if you are busy judging, you have no time to love! 

The Pharisees and the Scribes hated Jesus to the core because he was exposing their hypocrisy, their stubbornness of heart, their decision not to see, because they wanted to prove their judgement that Jesus was a fake messiah! Even after reports and experiences of the goodness of the Lord, they refused to see, or decided not to see! In fact, it is not that they did not see, they did not want to see! They wanted to be comfortable with their judgements and thoughts, more than with the real truth.

The questions raised by the Word today are very pointed: how far do you really see? does the sight-giving charity reside in your hearts? do you really want to see, or have you decided not to see?