(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Mass-Blog-for-the-8th-Sunday-of-Ordinary-Time-2025.mp3)
The best toys put kids to work. You’ll often see ads for such toys online, aimed at adults as well. Some use optical illusions and often shocking imagery to win viral status. One toy that won a lot of clicks this past Christmas season was a night light that simulated a hallway in a museum. Though this light fixture itself pops out from the wall on which it’s mounted, the images on it trick you into seeing a long hallway extending into the wall, leading you through an art exhibit. This toy fools our eyes into fooling our mind. This Sunday’s readings remind us to test our spiritual senses once in a while.
The first from Sirach reminds us not to judge a book by its cover. Open and read it instead. That applies to our fellow tricky and novel souls, too.
“The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind. Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.” (Sirach 27:4-7)
Death can be the ultimate trickster. Our surface-self changes with age, but the light behind it goes undimmed as long as we keep it charged—like every good night light. In fact, though that museum hallway illusion may get old, its light serves a purpose beyond trickery. It can still show the way down any REAL hallway—overcoming the corruptibility of this world’s illusions. Sunday’s letter to the Corinthians explains,
“When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-58)
God’s light is eternal, as is the light within us, as long as we keep reflecting it to the world around us. It won’t shine through the blinders this world likes to put on us, though. Those blinders fool us into thinking that the only reality is right before our eyes. We’re not supposed to see the things bathed in God’s all-encompassing light while wearing them. In Sunday’s gospel reading, Jesus reminds us how natural our earthly blinders seem—until God teaches us the art of removing them:
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother’s eye.” (Luke 6:39-45)
Beams aren’t always made of wood. Once you learn how to see beyond them you can help others see the one beam of light undimmed by this world’s illusions.
–Tom Andel
I appreciate the comment about how our surface-self changes. Anyone who ages well understands how in most cases, we ain’t what we used to be. Especially when a health issue creeps into our reality. We become limited compared to the vitality we had in our youth.
Its actually a great reminder of the reality and limited nature of our human existence. Temporary assignment! That is what we are all experiencing. This phase is just a temporary assignment from a physical perspective.
But the light given us at Baptism is eternal and we can affect its brightness. How you might ask? The answer is in the gifts of the church, available to all.
Sometimes people tell an older person they’ve aged well–like wine. I’m not a wine drinker, but I hear wine only ages well when kept in the dark and cold. The only way we humans age well, however, is in the light and warmth of our Maker’s love–while learning and living up to the purpose for which we were made. You are aging beautifully in God’s light and warmth, Thomas. I’ve enjoyed aging with you over the past 60-plus years. The chemistries of our lives and those that God has put in our lives is continuing to produce fruit I’m sure God finds delicious. No fermentation necessary.