Seeing as God SeesRead Time 8 min

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Wisdom of Solomon 2:12, 17-20

Psalm 54:3-8

James 3:16–4:3

Mark 9:30-37

“Look at me, Uncle John!”

And, whoosh, a little pink bicycle zoomed down an embankment into the road before me.

“Uncle John, watch!”

And a tiny little man stood on his head in front of me, then ran ahead.

“Look at this, Uncle John!”

And a slightly taller little man showed me his latest, less-than-perfect trick on his new skateboard.

All of this transpired in a matter of about four minutes on a walk down a country lane I recently enjoyed with my sister and brother-in-law and their kids just before sunset on my nephew Joseph’s 10th birthday. It was a taste of the kingdom and a sacrament of our hunger to be seen and known, above all by God, who delights in his children.

“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the one who sent me.” (Mark 9:37)

God apparently identifies with those children: a perfect communion of Father and Son, being perfectly seen, known and loved by each other from eternity to eternity, thus overflowing with Love in the Spirit.

Want more God in your life? Open your heart to that little pink bicycle. Receive a child begging to be seen, known and loved, and receive the mystery of the Living God. Receive your fellow man as that child at heart — somewhere, deep down, perhaps buried under decades of learned self-preservation and recalcitrance, but begging nonetheless to be seen, known and loved, though bristles might hide it.

As James describes in our liturgy this week, “the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.” (James 3:17-18)

Our walk that evening was bursting with all of that, glorious in its simplicity.

How different is the world beyond that country lane. As one translation of the Letter of James starkly puts it, “You desire and do not have, so you murder.” (James 4:2 ESV-CE) It is shocking to digest the fact that our own nation’s political stew has fermented to such a degree that people are literally attempting to murder one of our presidential candidates. The assassins certainly aren’t seeing, knowing and loving their fellow man. How did they, in turn, get to such a state of soul? Who has failed to see, know and love them enough to walk them off such cliffs? Where have we all failed as a society?

Our Lord is not naive. He knows where the path of discipleship in his way leads. He knows well that “the wicked say: Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. … With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.” (Wisdom 2:12, 19-20) He knows he must “be handed over to men and they will kill him.” (Mark 9:31)

But he knows that this is only because “they desire and do not have.” (James 4:2 ESV-CE) He knows they are being eaten alive by “jealousy and selfish ambition,” (James 3:16) “disorder and every foul practice.” (James 3:16) And so his heart is moved with pity for them, because although they thought themselves great, in fact “they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36 ESV-CE; cf. Mark 6:34; 9:34-35)

“If the just one be the son of God, God will defend him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.” (Wisdom 2:18) To the wicked, this is a taunt. To the faithful, it is an invitation to embrace the unshakeable foundation of being a beloved child of God and then choosing to see as God sees.