Sunday, February 24, 2008

Third Sunday of Lent: Seeing Through Your Lens

History was made recently when a beagle was named "Best in Show" at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York. No beagle had ever won the award before. The dog, named Uno, was born and raised in Belleville, IL, not far from here.

A duck hunter, named John, who lives nearby decided that one of Uno's cousins might make a pretty good hunting dog, so he made the trip to Belleville and bought himself a brand new beagle.

The next day he went out to his favorite hunting spot to see what the dog could do. After a few minutes in the blind, a duck flew over and BANG!, the duck fell out of the sky. John looked at his new dog and pointed to the floating duck. The dog took off after the bird, running across the top of the water! John couldn't believe his eyes. In a few minutes, another duck flew over, John shot, and the bird landed in the water. Again, the beagle took off across the water, grabbed the duck and brought him back.

Now John has a neighbor who's one of those people who always to have the upper hand. If you have something, he has one that's better and more expensive. If you do something, this guy's already done it, and done it better. John thought to himself, not this time. This dog's finally going too make me the winner.

So, he called the neighbor and invited him to go hunting. The next day they took off for the lake along with John's new beagle. After they'd been in the blind a few minutes, a duck flew over. John shot. The bird fell into the water. The beagle took off across the lake to get it. John waited for his neighbor's reaction........nothing. He didn't say a word.

The scene was repeated all morning as both men bagged their limits of ducks. Finally John couldn't take it anymore. He asked the neighbor, "Have you noticed anything different about my new dog?"

The neighbor answered, "Well, yes I did, but I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to hurt your feelings. Your dog can't swim."

We all look at things through different lenses. Our individual lens is colored by our experiences, our prejudices, our environment, even our genes. The neighbor and Joe are very competitive. They’re always trying to outdo each other. The neighbor didn’t want Joe to have such a miraculous dog, so he found a way to put a negative spin on the animal’s talent. “Your dog can’t swim”.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is in Sychar, a town in Samaria. He meets a Samaritan woman. Big surprise! The disciples have gone into town to buy food, so it’s just Jesus and the woman at a well. Jesus says to the woman, “Give me a drink.”

The woman answers, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” Think about her answer. John explains, looking through his Jewish lens, that Jews and Samaritans used nothing in common, so it’s not surprising that the woman would ask such a question.

But, look at the situation through her eyes. The reason they used nothing in common was that Jews thought Samaritans, especially Samaritan women, were “unclean”. The woman knew that. She’s lived with it her whole life. Now, here’s this stranger, this Jewish man, asking her for a drink. Can you imagine that her answer might have been a bit sarcastic? “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman for a drink?” Might she have added, “Aren’t you afraid you’ll catch something?”

She was passing judgment on Jesus, just as she must have felt the Jews had always passed judgment on her.

What about the story in the first reading? Moses has led the people out of Egypt; out of slavery. Are they grateful? Are they praising him? No, they’re grumbling against him because they’re thirsty. They seem to be saying, “What have you done for us lately? That Red Sea thing was pretty cool, but now we need water. C’mon Moses, work another miracle.”

You really can’t blame them. They have to have water. Without water, they’re going to die. Through the eyes of someone dying of thirst, yesterday’s miracle just doesn’t seem so miraculous. “Your dog may be able to walk on water, but he can’t swim.”

So, how much are we like the Samaritan woman? How much are we like the Jews in the desert? How much are we like Joe’s neighbor? C’mon. We all do it. We all have a set of life experiences that color the way we see things. The glass may be half full or it may be half empty. We’re Catholics. We see, and are seen, by non-Catholics in a certain way.

People who believe in God see things differently than people who don’t. Republicans see things differently than Democrats. Kids see things differently than adults. Black or white, man or woman, St. Louisan or New Yorker, we all see through different lenses.

Most of you know that I used to be a soccer referee. There’s a thing in sports called “home team eyes”. It’s very real. Two people, rooting for opposite teams, will see the same play and see two different things. Two kids run into each other and fall down. Half the fans will swear under oath that they saw Johnny push Billy and the other half will swear that they saw Billy push Johnny. The thing is they’re both telling the truth. They did see what they thought they saw, through their “home team eyes”. That’s why you have officials in sports. The referee or the umpire is supposed to be looking at the game through neutral eyes, or at least through the lens of the rules, not through the lens of either team.

Whenever you see two sides passionately for or against something, they see things very differently. People who are strongly pro-life and people who are just as strongly pro-choice see an abortion in an entirely different light, colored by their particular lens.

My wife, Jan and I were talking to our twenty-two year old daughter this morning. It was an eye-opening conversation. She made us realize that the world today is very different than it was when we were twenty-two. There are cars, and electricity, and indoor plumbing, and the internet, just to name a few things. There’s also crack cocaine, and heroine, and date-rape drugs. The places that Jan and I were worried about, like the bars and night clubs, are no worse than the so-called safe environment of the Catholic University she attends. In fact, the campus may even be worse. Our daughter is much better equipped to make good choices in 2008 than her hopelessly out-of-date parents.

So, what’s the point? We’re at the halfway point of Lent. I hope it’s been everything you wanted and needed it to be. If not, maybe it’s because you’ve been looking through a cloudy lens. Maybe these last three weeks would be a good time to try and see things through different eyes. Like the Samaritan woman and like the Jews in the dessert, maybe our judgments are colored by past events, that may or may not be letting us see things clearly.

Like the beagle, Jesus walked on water. Do we look at this, and all of His other miracles in awe? Do we come into His presence with thanksgiving, joyfully singing Psalms? Do we bow down in worship, kneeling before Him? Or do we ask “What have you done for me lately?”

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