Reflections from the Heart – July 4, 2021

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.”  It is said that the eyes are the window to one’s soul.  The gateway to what is eternal, the pathway to our Creator. Our vision is very important to our spiritual well-being. It plays an important role in nurturing the body and spiritually feeding the soul. So how is your vision? Is your vision good or does your eyesight need to be corrected, your eyes washed, your vision cleansed? Is your body sound from looking at what is good and pleasing to the eyes of God or is your body covered in noise, distractions, secrets or polluted images? Is the pathway that leads from your eyes to the sanctity of your soul covered in radiant light or covered in gloomy darkness? Is the pathway that leads to the sanctuary in your soul visible or invisible, known or unknown? Is the path from your eyes to your soul clearly marked or marked in confusion? Have you walked the spiritual path that goes from the window of your eyes, through the doorway of your heart, into the kingdom in your soul?  Your soul is truly a gift from God. It is eternal, covered in purity, filled with innocence, adorned by God and desired by him.  Yet we seem to forget how precious our soul is. We tend to neglect our soul and we cover them in darkness and fill them with lies. If the eyes are truly the window of the soul, then how much light is your soul truly receiving? Light is good as scripture says, it comes from God, it was created by him. Light comes from gazing upon what is beautiful as God sees it. Light comes from beholding what is good, lovely, beautiful, pure. Darkness is from the evil one. It is bad for our soul. It attacks what is good. It suffocates what is truly good for us. Darkness comes from gazing on what is impure, from coveting what is not ours, from lusting after what is forbidden, from desiring what does not belong to us. Darkness is to be avoided, undesired, shunned, corrected immediately. The soul is like a fragrant flower covered in beauty and filled with sweetness. If it is deprived of light, of love, of life, of God, the soul withers then dies from neglect and lack of concern. Like our eyes, our soul requires special care and loving attention to clearly see the pathway that leads to God. “Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.”