God grants us vision through the gift of the saints – Luke 18:35-43; Rose Duchesne

Monday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne; Holy Cross Parish.
Note: I'm traveling for a couple of conferences over the next week, so this blog will probably lie dormant until Advent I.

“Lord, let me see.”  What a prayer!  Let me see.  How much depth, beauty, awe and wonder is there to the world that we do not see!  We believe that every marvel of nature was lovingly crafted by God, but how often do we miss His fingerprints?  We believe that every human was made in the image and likeness of God, immeasurably precious in His eyes, but how we view another person as an inconvenience or distraction from what’s really important?  We believe that Love has conquered, that sin and death have are powerless, that the world is being redeemed, standing on tiptoes to see the coming glory, but how often do we give in to the prophets of doom, lapse in our hope, and content ourselves to the blinkers of pessimism and cynicism.  “Lord, please let me see.”

A phrase that has long fascinated me from our Holy Cross Constitutions and that I quote often is: “we see by dawn’s first light, and we long for fullness of day.”  We long to see the world as it truly is, bathed in the light of grace.  It’s not the grace that’s weak, it’s our sight.  “Lord, please let me see.”

“Have sight.”  God’s word does not return empty.  “Have sight.”

God granted sight to Rose Philippe Duchesne.  She lived a challenging life as a teacher to in the mission territory of North America, because she could see Christ in children she taught.  There’s nothing else that could have sustained her to go to the lengths she went to to give the gift of education than that in the children, both European and Native, that she taught, she encountered Christ, Christ who gave her sight to see Him.  How could she walk away from that, however tough life got?

God granted sight through Rose Philippe Duchesne.  The Potawatomi gave her a name which in their language meant “woman who prays always.”  They could see in her a woman on fire with love for God, who let herself be carried by God, who delighted to meet Him in prayer.  That’s a witness the world needs: of someone thoroughly involved in the struggles of the world who lived a visible life of prayer.  If someone can’t see God, maybe they can see His reflection in the eyes of someone who gazes at Him lovingly in prayer.

God grants sight to and through the saints.  They can be windows through which our vision might become more and more attuned to the glory in store for us in Christ, windows through which the light of day may break.  Have sight.