Reflections from the Heart – March 23, 2025

Third Sunday of Lent
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“Whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall.” Sometimes our vision is off. Way off. We fail to see things clearly, accurately. We fail to visualize things as they really are. Perhaps our eyesight has double vision or easily blind sighted or sees things as stick figures, outlines or silhouettes and yet we are sure about what we see. Certain about what we saw. Sin causes us to lose perspective, to misjudge distances, to miscount items or even add items that are not there or miss or omit necessary and important details that are actually present. Sin causes us to look away or to look elsewhere. To look around to find traces of evidence that is nonexistent or obtain something fraudulently. To look for things that are not there or mysteriously have things appear when no one is looking. Perhaps things that were never there or to see things not as they are or ever were. At times, our vision is so bad; we tend to have false images of ourselves. We see ourselves through negative impressions of ourselves and make false comparisons to others. The wooden beam in our eye gets in the way and prevents us to be able to see the full picture clearly as the scene is or the picture meant to be. Envy, ambition, jealousy affect our vision and damage our eyesight. Our focus is blurred, our eyesight skewed. We can be nearsighted and overly critical of others and ourselves. Other times, we are rather farsighted. We inflate the facts and over exaggerate the details. Either way, our vision is poor, our eyesight impaired and we see what we want to see rather than what really is. Our eyesight becomes like judgement and our judgement becomes our vision. Sometimes we just get it wrong. Some see the glass half empty. Others see the glass half full. Still others cannot even see the glass. Still others fail to see there is nothing in it at all. We see and look at only the appearance and not really the appearance but our wounded self, projected onto another. We see what hurts inside transferred and projected onto what or who we see. We measure our vision by what we see rather than what really is. We stand falsely secure only to see how we fail to see and fall into sin. Praise God he sees you. He sees all of you and still likes what he sees. Be gentle with yourselves and others for God is gentle and kind.