Unblocking Vision

April 5, Tuesday, 5th Week of Lent
Numbers 21:4-9, Gospel John 8:21-30

A woman approached me and expressed all her complaints about her husband. After her litany of bitterness, I told her to enumerate her husband's many good things throughout their married life. She told me that she could not remember anything.

Plato, a philosopher, has this allegory of the cave where people only look at the shadows inside the cave. They can no longer look at the sun, making shadows that are not real. According to Plato, to liberate those people, someone must turn their vision to the direction where they ought to be.

This is the message of the readings. The Israelites (Numbers 21:4-9) were locked in the difficulties and dangers they had encountered on their journey, forgetting all the wondrous deeds God had accomplished before them, including their passing through the Red Sea. Their murmurs and complaints against God brought suffering and death upon themselves.

It is the same in the gospel. The Pharisees were stuck and locked in their limited understanding of the Scriptures, so they failed to recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promise, despite the clarity of Jesus’ teachings and the wondrous things he did, which point to the promised Messiah.

Many times, suffering and even death come upon us when we succumb to our limited human vision of things. When we get stuck in our vision and dreams, we forget our mission in life. As a result, all our efforts and struggles to achieve our vision and dreams only end in frustration and regret.

We should never forget that life is a mission to lead others to Jesus. At a certain point in our lives, we need to decide to pick up the cross of our mission, maybe as a father and husband, a mother and wife, as children or parents, whatever status we are in, and walk the path of Jesus. Only then can we see beyond ourselves and be truly happy. Amen.