Each week I look forward to the Thursday morning (NZ time) arrival of the report of Pope Francis’ Wednesday catechesis at his weekly general Audience in St. Peter’s Square. Every week tens of thousands of people from all over the world gather to see and hear the pope. During the gathering the pope’s words are read in translation in several languages which means that he has to speak very briefly and to the point giving time for the multi-translations to be read.
Francis is a superb teacher, always leaving his listeners with a take-home image or phrase. Remember the flying plates of a couple of weeks ago?
Yesterday the pope defined wisdom as “seeing everything with the eyes of God”. I find this advice very practical and helpful. When I think about this I am inspired since so much of my daily difficulty comes from seeing situations and people with a limited and flawed human perspective. I am reminded of “benevolent glancing.”
So this morning I decided to spend the remaining days of Lent practicing seeing every moment, every encounter, and every person through the eyes of God.
Already it is making a difference.
This Lent I’ve reflected on life pilgrimage and my incomplete forgiveness of past grievances. Grudges still persist because the divine view was lacking. Now, gently and with some humour, Jesus reminds me that if I had not made judgements, forgiveness would not be necessary. Okay. I get that. And so now, I also need to forgive myself with the same divine view.