“DO I want to be fully seen by Jesus? Do I want to be known by him?” Henry Nouwen asks in his book, Discernment. These questions are intriguing because they imply a great amount of vulnerability, nakedness, and humility on our part as human beings.
Indeed, if we honestly look at ourselves, do we really want to be seen by God in all our wickedness, weaknesses, beauty, and grace? Would we be hesitant, ashamed and embarrassed to present ourselves to the Lord as we really are? I believe that many of us would say that they would be.
In the Gospel this Sunday, we find a blind man sitting at a roadside who was not hesitant and embarrassed at all to show his vulnerability, weakness, and need for help to Jesus amidst a vast crowd who kept rebuking him to be silent. He called on the name of Jesus, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity of me.” On hearing him, Jesus asked what he wanted him to do for him. He replied, “Master, I want to see.”
As we prepare to celebrate the Year of Mercy, which will begin on the 8th of December this year, we need to put on a garment of humility to be “seen” by God in the entirety of one’s self. Only then can we open ourselves to the tender mercy of God. There should never be any taint of pride and fear in us to meet the Lord; only an openness and willingness to be nursed and healed by his love and mercy.
In his Bull of Indiction (formal announcement of proclamation) of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Misericordiae Vultus, Pope Francis states: “When faced with the gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy. Mercy will always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive. I will have the joy of opening the Holy Door on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. On that day, the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instils hope…How much I desire that the year to come will be steeped in mercy, so that we can go out to every man and woman, bringing the goodness and tenderness of God!”
It’s important for us, human beings and global citizens, to reflect on this mercy, goodness, and tenderness of God, especially in this time when many parts of world are replete with violence, hatred, and arrogance toward fellow human beings. We take for example the expulsion of the Syrian people from their native land and Christians from several Islamic nations. We can never proclaim a God of love and mercy if we ourselves cannot be merciful, compassionate, and tender to others.
The doors of our hearts need to be open to keep, to welcome, and to receive others in our lives. We cannot foster today’s cultural milieu of removing from “the human heart the very idea of mercy” for “Jesus reveals the nature of God as that of a Father who never gives up until he has forgiven the wrong and overcome rejection with compassion and mercy.” (St. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 13).
The doors of our hearts need to be open to heal the wounds of pride and arrogance using “the medicine of mercy rather than taking up the arms of severity.” (St. John XXIII).
May we never hesitate to be seen by God and to gaze even more attentively on the tenderness of his mercy! It’s only then that we can also become merciful and tender to our fellow men and women.
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From a Filipino immigrant family, Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas was ordained to the priesthood from St. John’s Seminary in 1991. He served as Associate Pastor at St. Augustine, Culver City (1991-1993); St. Martha, Valinda (1993-1999); and St. Joseph the Worker, Canoga Park (1999-2001). In 2001, he served as Administrator Pro Tem of St. John Neumann in Santa Maria, CA, until his appointment as pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, Los Angeles, in 2002, which lasted 12 years. His term as Associate Director of Pastoral Field Education at St. John’s Seminary began in July 2014.
