Seeing Through the Filter

Beloved in Christ, 

One delusion of modern life is the assumption that it is possible to see the world objectively, and without bias. Our brains take in about eleven million bits of information per second, and our conscious minds can only process about fifty bits. That’s an enormous gap, and our minds close that gap by using unconscious filters to select what to see and predict what is likely to happen. Those filters are made of what we believe or value most.  So, it turns out, it’s not so much that seeing is believing, but rather we have to believe in order to see. 

Following Jesus is about learning to see through the filter of God’s sacrificial, neighborly love. In this Sunday’s dense and complex gospel reading, Jesus is helping us to understand that true, healing vision is only found when we let go of faith in ourselves, and practice clinging entirely to God’s power. 

Learning to see through the eyes of Jesus will give us a bias for love. It will develop a filter for generosity in a world of rancor and scorn, shine a warm and healing light on the poor and those pushed aside in a world where might makes right. Our spiritual work in every moment is to ask Jesus to touch the scales of hard-hearted selfishness, bitterness, and fear that ever blind us, and put on the lens of love, and the filter of justice. Through daily prayer, sharing life with each other, drinking deeply from the scriptures, and encountering Jesus in sacrament, God’s vision for a world healed by love comes into sharper focus, and we are set free to extend that healing in every moment of our living, in a world imprisoned by its destructive blindness. 

Grace and Peace, 

The Right Rev. Craig Loya