The readings and the feast we celebrate today unite so much on the theme: KNOWING. We celebrate the feast of St. Camillus de Lellis, a priest. Though he is not that known to us, but he is, I believe, one of the patron saints of the sick and suffering. Since his concern is for the care of the sick, please allow me to use the image of the EYEGLASSES (antipara or antyohos). I am sure St. Camillus would highly recommend these glasses to me to help me overcome my poor eyesight.
The purpose of our eyes is to see. We even have two different levels of seeing. On the one hand, we have our physical eyes. We use them to see people, all the material things and events around us. On the other hand, in a deeper level, we have our spiritual eyes. We use them to see how we relate with God, with others, and with the rest of creation, as well as, use them to see our joys or sadness within. Therefore, what does this symbol of eyeglasses mean and how does this apply to us? Please allow me to symbolize these glasses as a way of seeing and knowing GOD; in a context of how we KNOW Him (of course I don’t mean to limit God to this simple created thing, but to hopefully deepen our faith in Him). So, given this symbol, each of us then has a pair of these eyeglasses since we all have God within us. And so the question is: HOW WELL DO WE KNOW GOD? JUST LIKE OUR PAIR OF EYEGLASSES, IS IT CLEAN AND CLEAR for us to see or is it still FULL OF DUST AND DIRT? In other words, how do we see God and others through these glasses? The way I see and know Him is the way I could see others CLEARLY through Him.
There are two things we need to know in using these GLASSES.
1. First is TAKING GOOD CARE OF OUR GLASSES.
Let me share with you a story from the book of the Jesuit priest Mark Link. A test given to astronaut candidates requires them to give 20 answers to the same question, “Who are you?” The former astronaut John Glenn says the first few answers are easy: ‘I am a man. I am a flier. I am an American.’ But as you continue, it gets harder and harder to say who you are.” John Glenn’s observation shows an important point in the light of today‘s reading: We can be too intelligent, we can know too much about the Father, but not really know Him. My dear brothers, before we use these glasses to see others, we have to clean this first. The two readings today will help us on this. Our 1st reading today shows that without these glasses, we can’t see clearly, because without God, we become boastful, arrogant and proud of ourselves, like the King of Assyria. Furthermore, in the Gospel today, Jesus tells us about the wise persons like the self-sufficient scribes and Pharisees who don’t basically know who the Father truly is because, as Leon Morris would say, “their wisdom makes them superior to the foolish and accordingly come to rely on that wisdom”. So Jesus, as the Son, wants to show that he does not only KNOW things and descriptions ABOUT the Father, but REALLY KNOW the Father, and he declares that with conviction because he truly acts what he says, that “no one knows the Father except the Son”. There’s no doubt as to how clear his glasses are. We ourselves know how Jesus see things and he chose to reveal what he knows about the Kingdom to the last, lost and least in the society. This tells us that through Him we see who God truly is!
2. Second, after CLEANING OUR GLASSES, it’s now time to SEE THROUGH THESE GLASSES.
Let me talk again about St. Camillus; a Christian whose glasses were so clear, and thus lived what was revealed to him by Jesus as to who God truly is. Allow me then to quote a few words from the companion of St. Camillus, and I quote: “The mere sight of the sick was enough to soften and melt (St. Camillus’) heart and make him utterly forget all the pleasures and interests of this world. In the sick he saw the person of Christ. He would even beg of them the gift of forgiveness for his sins.” When he was in the military, he thought that life is all about power and pride. But when he got to see and know Jesus, he embraced God with humility and charity to the weak and childlike.
Today, how do we see our brothers and sisters in our different apostolates? Are we just prepared to give them a lecture, only to realize that it’s not so much our lectures that they see and know God, but simply our caring presence; in such caring presence that vulnerable people feel their worth and feel they are loved. Isn’t that what Jesus is saying today in the Gospel? But before we can do that, first we must have that childlike simple trust in Jesus through constant prayer, through the Consciousness Examen, through the Daily Masses, and our regular Spiritual Direction. Second, we must give our commitment to our theological studies so that we can share them among the poorest children such as in Gugma sa Kabataan. We should not be mediocre but rather grow in learning. The more we grow in knowledge of Him, the more we can see things clearly.
Let me end with this prayer by the Jesuit priest Mark Link, and I quote: “Lord, help us realize that knowing our heavenly Father is not a question of opening a book and reading. It is a question of opening our heart and loving. Amen.”
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