Friday, October 14, 2022
           (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Seeing with the second gaze
So many people were crowding together that they were trampling one another underfoot. And Jesus began to speak.
Let’s put ourselves into that crowd. The dust is everywhere. Unwashed skin doesn’t exactly stink, but it’s certainly … unwashed. Heads and elbows and underarms and noses lose track of their own private space, and we are, well … one.
We push a little and get pushed a lot. Everyone wants to see Jesus for themselves. We mostly want to hear him, but the crowd’s desire soaks into us. We want to see Jesus too!
There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, no secret that will not be known.
But I don’t think this is a threat as much as a promise. When I am fully known, I will be fully loved. God’s love for me transcends my sin and my secrets about that sin. He KNOWS. She KNOWS. God knows, and I am all the better for it.
Not everyone hears Jesus’ words that way.
What you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed on the housetops.
Perhaps they have a point. He goes on:
I tell you, my friends (he called us his FRIENDS!), do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more. I shall show you whom to fear.
Does he mean Yahweh?
Be afraid of the one who after killing has the power to cast into Gehenna; yes, I tell you, be afraid of that one.
But Jesus does not want me to get defensive. He doesn’t want me to search out this all-powerful being in foreboding and fear. Jesus insists I move on from what Richard Rohr calls the “first gaze:”
The first gaze is busy weighing and feeling itself: “How will this affect me?” or “What reaction does my self-image demand now?” or “How can I regain control of this situation?” Let’s admit that we all start there.
Jesus’ point is that God will bring new life and openness into our secret-laden life. Do not be afraid.
Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. DO NOT BE AFRAID. You are worth more than many sparrows.
Oh yes, I am fully known. And oh, yes, I am fully loved. It only matters now when I will wander into that way of being and know it. Rohr says it this way:
It has taken me much of my life to begin seeing with the “second gaze.” In truth this gaze of compassion, looking out at life from the place of Divine Intimacy, is really all I have, and all I have to give, although I don’t always do it.
God leads by compassion, never by condemnation. God offers us the grace to weep over our sins more than to perfectly overcome them, to humbly recognize our littleness rather than to become big. This kind of weeping and wandering keeps us both askew and awake at the same time.
 I stand quietly in the crowd, which has stopped its pushing. Sweat begins to spring on my brow, but I feel quiet and patient. I am an old man, and I have lived my life. Only lately, as I hear of Jesus and his miracles, have I felt fresh again, and thirsty for what Jesus calls the “living water.”
Re-entering my time capsule, I read what Richard Rohr will write 2000 years from now, about himself, and about little old me, a simple Palestinian shepherd:
My later life is to “wander in the land of Nod,” enjoying God’s so-often-proved love and protection. Contemplation and compassion are finally coming together. This is my second gaze, well worth waiting for. The second gaze sees itself, the other, and even God with God’s own compassionate eyes.
(Ephesians 1, Psalm 33, Luke 12)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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