We have been given eyes not only to see but also to look. In fact, it's more the latter than the former that is important to us. We have to realize this distinction and live according to its relative priority.
Much of the problem today can be traced to the fact that many of us do not make this distinction and therefore do not know what to look or how to look. We just rely on what we see and allow ourselves to be led indiscriminately by it, often not realizing we are just being played upon by instincts, passions, and other conditionings.
To see is simply to register in our eyes the things around us at a given moment. It's passive. Seeing is merely opening ourselves to the things around us. To look is to train our eyes to find something. It's active, intentional. It puts the eyes at the behest of our will and intelligence
We need to realize that while both seeing and looking are indispensable to us, we are meant more to look than to see. Looking presumes you have something that you want to find. It's a consequence of a certain process that ultimately involves the question of what we want to find and see.
It gives us a sense of direction in our life. It gives us focus. It prevents us from getting into distractions. It helps to get engaged with the essentials and not to get entangled with the non-essentials.
In this regard, it's good that we ask ourselves some leading questions. Are we just contented to see things around us at random? Or do we look for more than shapes, quantity, color, posture and composition of things around us? What is it that we really look for?
The questions are important because they indicate to us the depth and scope of our motives for looking, and then, more importantly, the validity, legitimacy and objective importance of these motives.
Is our looking driven only by the desire for more knowledge, more power, fame, wealth, or is there something greater than these that direct the way we look at things?
We need to remember that motives do also fall under some hierarchy or ranking. Are we just motivated by some temporal or earthly value, or is there some spiritual and supernatural reason for our looking at things?
If we hold faith as the ultimate guide in our life-more than our mere reasoning and much less our senses-then the answer should be that God or love for God is the primary principle that shapes the way we look.
As St. Paul said: “Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.†(Rom 14,8) And, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.†(1 Cor 10,31)
In short, we need to look for God every moment of our life. Christ himself said so: “Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you.†(Mt 7,7)
We are truly meant to look for Christ always. Only then can we expect to find him. And only when we find him can we learn to love and serve him. How can we love him, if we don't find him? And how can we find him, if we don't look for him?
Actively looking for him prevents us from simply drifting in any which way in our life. Looking for him does not actually restrict or narrow our view of life. Rather, the opposite-it widens and deepens our perspectives. We would see the complete picture and know how to integrate the varying and seemingly conflicting values in life.
We need to be wary of the temptation, very subtly and cleverly suggested by the devil, that taking this business of God and religion seriously would hamper our freedom.
The question may be asked if God can truly be found by us. The question actually raises the reality of faith. For those who have faith, obviously God can be found since not only is he everywhere, but also it's his nature to love us, to be with us, to intervene in our life, to govern and lead us to himself.
Now that we are in the liturgical season of Easter, this truth about God intervening in our life is highlighted. In all his apparitions to Mary Magdalene and his disciples, the common thing stressed is that he is now forever alive and actively intervening in our lives. We need to look for him.
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Email: roycimagala@gmail.com.