Sometimes I have written here about trying to see annoying or challenging people through what I have called “resurrection glasses”, that is, the inner lens a Christian ought to have well-polished which helps us to see how people may be after the resurrection.
If we can learn to imagine how God may intend that person to be in heaven, after the resurrection, we may be able to avoid some of the sins we can commit through lack of charity.
It is not very often that I find something of value on the site of the National Catholic Reporter, but there is a good article right now by Michael Leach, publisher emeritus and editor at large of Orbis Books, and author.
I am not quite sure about his discussion of “metapsychiatry”, which I don’t understand very well, and frankly don’t care to read about much more. It sounds rather new-agey and synchretistic to me, with its Jung and Zen and references I found upon a quick web check.
But that’s not the point.
The writer is advancing something which we ought to be able to agree on: people who are afflicted with physical and mental challenges are made in God’s image and likeness, God loves them and wants them to be happy with Him in heaven, and if they come to that glorious state through their infirmities their beauty just may – in my opinion – by far surpass what “normal” people enjoyed in this vale of tears and may hope ever to attain in the life to come.
We don’t need “metapsychiatry” to teach us about our Faith and about charity.
Nevertheless, the article was a reminder that we all have to examine our consciences and keep our “resurrection glasses” clean.
Here is the first part…
Christ and cerebral palsy
By Michael Leach
Created Nov 08, 2011
by Michael Leach [1] on Nov. 08, 2011“Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his to the Father through the features of men’s faces.” — Gerard Manley Hopkins [From “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”]
How easy it is to see the face of Christ in the eyes of a baby or the limbs of a child racing a kite or the features of a movie star. The key to eternal life is to behold the loveliness of Christ in the eyes of a child born blind, the limbs of a teenager with cerebral palsy, the features of a woman scarred with burns. The truth is — the beauty is — each wears the face of Christ and they all play as one.
How many times have I averted my eyes from a picture in TIME of a starving baby with flies on her face or didn’t pay attention to the fellow slumped over in a wheelchair at a wedding or found an excuse not to visit a friend wasting away with cancer or pretended the family at the diner who had a noisy child with Down syndrome didn’t exist? And what a blessing it becomes to begin to see with spiritual eyes and behold the image of the emaciated baby as she really is, whole, to touch the cripple in the wheelchair and say hello, to visit a friend or acquaintance in the hospital or nursing home with a great big smile, and to stop by the table with the Down child and touch his shoulder and tell him and his parents what a wonderful family they are. The truth is — the wonder is — that the words of Christ are literally true: “Whatever you do unto these, you do for me.” And what we do for Christ we do for them and for ourselves and for the whole human race. For all of us, each of us, are one.
[…]
Read the rest there, if you wish.
Perpend:
