Seeing Through Christ's Eyes

It is said that at the beginning of the twentieth century psychiatrists saw human beings as thinking beings who happened to have feelings to struggle with. By the end of the century, they concluded that the reverse was true. Humans are feeling creatures who happen to be able to think.

In a similar manner, day-to-day life leads us to view humanity as physical beings with spiritual struggles. However, there have been several thoughtful authors who argue that we are really spiritual creatures who wear our physical bodies like coats.

This point is more than semantic. Just as a cerebral self-image can cause a lifetime of vexation as we are assailed by a cacophony of emotions, so too are spiritual struggles impossible to overcome, if we fail to see ourselves as walking in a spiritual realm. Often, spiritual struggles are not even seen from a materialist vantage point. The assault of sin and its harm are subtle and slow when we consider only the physical.

Jesus spoke often of The Kingdom of God. He stated that his kingdom was not of this world, and seemed to care little for kingdoms that were.

Might this point of view prove critical to becoming more Christ like?

If instead of seeing sin as a bad habit, which we have a lifetime to break, we viewed it as a method for Satan to hurt God through us, how would we change? If we could view the verbal digs that we give and take as assaults on one another's souls, like stabbing one another would appear materially, what changes would we make in our relationships? Or, if we could see as with our eyes the torment of a soul experiencing profound grief and loss, how much more compassion would we find?

This is what Christ calls us to open our eyes and see. But, also, he wants us to see beauty; to see faith, hope and charity. He came to physically embody God, for a world blinded to the spiritual by the material. Through Christ's life, we tangibly perceive God's mercy, love and grace.