THREE WORDS OF WISDOM

I CAN SEE

These words are taken from today's Gospel about the man born blind. In today's account, those who do not believe in the miracle question the man about the healing that took place. They ask him a very important question, "How were your eyes opened?"

Conversion of St. Paul-
blinded for 3 days

Let us put ourselves in the man's position for a moment of meditation on this beautiful story. A story of healing and conversion. I pose this question to you, dear reader, and to myself. How were your eyes opened?  How did your conversion of heart take place? Was it dramatic and miraculous, or quiet and a gradual change of heart?

I ask you to think about this, the story of your conversion when your eyes were opened to the living God, to Jesus his Son, and to the Holy Spirit during this Lenten retreat before Easter. We can recall our lives before our conversion. Like the blind man we were in total darkness, were we not? before God called us into his marvelous light!  So I ask you to reflect on the people who helped you, the circumstances, the situations that God put in place to help you to see the light.  Let us be very grateful that the Holy Spirit penetrated our poor, sinful hearts and opened up our minds and hearts to the life of grace.

Let us remember where we came from, our sinful past. This will keep us humble to remember how poor we were without Christ. It will remind us to reflect on holy poverty, that we are still poor indeed without his help in each moment of our lives. Let us remember to pray for the conversion of sinners, as Our Lady asks us to do. Perhaps the blind man's family had prayed for years for his conversion, for his spiritual sight to be restored. The total healing from Jesus was an answer to prayer.

As Secular Carmelites, let us reflect on the teachings and the lives of our Saints of Carmel.  Holy Mother, St. Teresa, writes about three different conversions in her life. In the life of St. Therese, the Little Flower, her Christmas eve conversion is well-known, and well-told by her in A Story of a Soul. We can see that some souls are given the grace of instant conversion of heart, like St. Paul and others are a work-in-progress.

Let us pray for each other, that we continually seek out the Lord for conversion of heart and implore, "Lord, I want to see!" Yes, I want to see you glorified in my life. Yes, I want to see your holy will to be done in me. Yes, I want to see every knee bend at the name of Jesus. The name above every other name. The name that brings healing and salvation to all mankind!

Peace be with you!
Rosemarie, ocds
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