Second Sight – Jim & Ann

There is a familiar hymn that we sing during communion time that asks us to look beyond the bread we eat and see our Savior and our Lord. We were thinking about this particular hymn because the gospel stories during Easter focus on seeing the risen Christ.  Those pilgrims on the road to Emmaus were so preoccupied in their conversation with one another that they did not recognize the stranger who walked beside them.  Only in the breaking of the bread did they recognize the risen Christ in their presence.  Others couldn’t believe their eyes when Christ came and stood before them.  It just didn’t compute in their brains, in spite of what they saw.  Obviously there is more to “seeing” than physical perception. 

Have you ever known a blind person who, in many ways, had the ability to see more than you did? Austin was such a person for us.  He was a regular lector at his parish and he never missed his assigned Sunday to read.  After making his way unassisted to the ambo and adjusting the microphone, he would unroll a cloth mat and lay his paper in the center of it.  With a clear voice he then proclaimed the scripture as his fingers skimmed along the raised dots.  Most lectors occasionally let a word slip by as they pushed to finish a certain passage.  But Austin never missed a word and neither did we, his listeners.  He “saw” the words with his fingers better than most of us read with our eyes. 

In her book “Left to Tell” Immaculee Ilibagiza describes the horror of the ethnic cleansing in Rwandan holocaust.  Along with seven other women, she spent 91 days hidden and starving in a small bathroom.  During this ordeal Immaculee gradually came to see life through the eyes of faith in ways she had never seen before.  She began to see those who hunted her as children of God who were, like her, caught in the grip of evil.  Immaculee’s new vision eventually allowed her to face and forgive the man who murdered her family and sought to kill her. 

All of the human family is on the “road to Emmaus,” and every single heart holds the hope of heaven as its final destination.  Unfortunately, we have chosen to surround ourselves with pollution, corruption and destruction in every form.  Lines down the center separating friends from enemies become more clearly defined.  Like Austin, we need to keep the word in our heart and proclaim it with boldness.  Just as Immaculee did, we must use eyes of faith to see beyond hatred and violence.  When we are willing to break bread, especially with those we have to come think of as enemies, we will finally realize the presence of Christ among us.