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Scripture
12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
*I Corinthians 13.12 (NLT)
Wisdom Saying
Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eyes of the heart.
*St. Augustine (354-430)
Comments
I recall in my early thirties getting my first eyeglasses. I was standing in an optometrist office in New Orleans. I put on the glasses and looked outside over a far distance. I was amazed at the newness of vision. I had not been aware at how my eyesight had been digressing, at how much I had missed seeing. I had slowly adjusted to the loss of vision. With a simple pair of eyeglasses, it was as though my eyes were restored to health.
"Seeing" is used in Christian spirituality for seeing within all things a subtler dimension of Being: the Presence of God. God is in all things, each thing is in God, all things together live in God, and the essence of all is the Essence of God. While God is totally Other, God is manifested in creatures in varying extents.
Persons have varied degrees of natural eyesight, from practically perfect vision to complete blindness. This same fact applies spiritually. Likewise, the capacity of our spiritual seeing can digress or progress. Spiritual practice and virtuous thoughts and actions facilitate and increase spiritual perception. Failure to engage spiritual disciplines and engagement in unsound thinking and action impairs spiritual perception.
St. Paul speaks of a time after this life~dimension when we can anticipate perfect seeing. Then, we can enjoy what the Church has termed the Beatific Vision, or the unmediated, fully clear, and blissful seeing of Divine Being.
The Beatific Vision is the fullness of a vision that begins in this life. We have opportunities to begin participating in increasing capacity the Beatific Vision now.
Spiritual Christianity is concerned with providing space and practice to increase the vision of the Divine in nature around us, even in the eyes of the person we gaze upon as an icon of Love. Therefore, for this objective, we engage in a life that clears our seeing, and this seeing, as noted by St. Augustine, is the seeing of the heart.
Suggested Reflection
How do you evidence growing in the seeing of the heart? Explain.
*Quote from St. Augustine, in Robert Ellsberg. The Saint's Guide to Happiness.
Brian is available to respond to requests pertaining to seeking a Spiritual Director, his speaking, doing classes, workshops, or retreats for churches or other spiritual groups. He will inform regarding how to receive his other writings or offer replies to comments or questions.
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*Brian K. Wilcox lives with his wife, Rocio, and their two dogs, St. Francis and Bandit Ty, in Clearwater and Punta Gorda, Florida. He is a United Methodist pastor and vowed member of Greenbough House of Prayer, a contemplative Christian community in Georgia. His passion is living a contemplative life and inspiring others to experience a deeper relationship with Christ through contemplative prayer and living.
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