Is Seeing Believing? (Sunday April 3)

A verse from a song sung at Mass jumped out at me: “Give me ears to listen, give me eyes to see, give me words to speak and show Your face to me.”

Why would we pray this if we can look in the mirror and see we have ears, we have eyes, and if we open our mouths, we can speak?

In 1 Samuel 16:1-13, we hear about a man who is following God “blindly”—He willingly and obediently goes to do the Lord’s work yet he cannot trust his own senses. It is not what his human eyes or ears or perhaps even touch perceive in the sons of Jesse, but of what his internal ear heard: God telling him to listen to Him, look elsewhere; that God sees not at the appearance or stature, but the heart.

It is not what we can do that is important, but what we are asked to do.

God gave us eyes and ears and speech in varying degrees, so that we can see, hear, and speak. He gave us free will so that we can choose when we will or will not use these gifts. He also gives us a role to play in His plan, if we offer our free wills to it. This role goes beyond what we can perceive, in order to portray His plan in His time. A few weeks after David’s anointment, some may have forgotten Samuel even came to town that day. To someone passing through, there would be no cause for concern; maybe no cause even for interest. I imagine they might say in passing: “A king in a boy? God may be strong in him, but I don’t see a king.” Their senses, our senses, cannot perceive what God perceives: the big picture; His plan for all who know, love, and serve Him.

The final phrase of the song is prophetic yet human: “and show your face to me.” How human that we want to see. We want to see because we want to know—for sure. We want to SEE—like God sees and yet in a way that we can understand. Who could understand why a shepherd, a youth, would be called to be king when there were other more likely candidates?

The prophetic part is that if we follow God, not with our senses but with His guidance, we will SEE. I am sure Samuel didn’t see where God was going with this unlikely anointment. But he didn’t argue or falter or try to reason with God’s ways. It may not be important to sit down and identify all the “Davids” in our lives. After all, how can we even see them to identify them? It is important, I think, to be like Samuel: always obeying even if it is counter-intuitive.  In reality, God just wants us to realize what we can do with our own senses is very limited: we can perceive a man and a boy. But, thinking back to the impact of Samuel’s obedience, what we can do in obedience to God, now that is truly unlimited.