LOOKING FOR THE GOOD

LOOKING FOR THE GOOD

Imagine, if you will, what it was like in Israel in the time of Christ.  The people were under the control of their religious leaders, the Romans, and centuries of traditions.

Then, along comes this man from Galilee who seems to have no regard for any of that.  He walks and talks to everyone without regard for their station in life, their sex, their infirmities or any of things that divide people.  Instead, He appears to look for the good in everyone. Beggars at the side of the road, used to being spat upon, are flummoxed when He speaks kindly to them.  They can hardly believe the stories they were hearing about His actually curing people so they didn’t have to beg. 

This new kind of Rabbi who looked right at you or, some would say through you, was creating a buzz unlike anything before Him.  As He moved through the region, even into Samaria where no self-respecting Jew ever went on purpose, He did the same thing.  Despite the comments about how inappropriate He was, there was no denying the up swell of hope in the people.  An official came and asked Him to cure his ill daughter and Jesus looks him straight in the eye and says, “Take me to her.”

A Roman officer asks him to cure his servant and Jesus looks him straight in the eye and says, “Take me to him.”  A Samaritan woman points out that they worship in one place and Jews in another both thinking they are right.  Jesus looks her straight in the eye and says, “The hour is coming when people will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”    This habit of Jesus, looking straight at people, was disconcerting, but how would He have read their hearts if He looked at their feet?

During these weeks of mourning in our family, I have looked into the eyes of many people.  I saw concern, love, grief, understanding and empathy in their eyes.  Most of those people probably don’t realize how those unguarded looks carried us through the days.

If we want a better world, we have to start with the people in it. We are surrounded by people.  Some we know, most we don’t, but we have a habit of not looking right at them. We might not be able to read their hearts as Jesus did, but the old saying that the eyes are the mirror of the soul is not wrong.  You can tell a lot about people looking at their eyes.

 Jesus did not have some magic formula. He just looked directly at people.   We can do that much. We don’t have to concern ourselves about what we will see looking directly at someone, because what we see isn’t important, it’s what they see in our eyes that matters.  We ought to be able to emulate Jesus and just look directly at people acknowledging their existence and hope that our love of Christ will shine through.

Blessings,

Carol Lemelin OPA