What Is, Just As It Is
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Reflection By Lisa Senuta
Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
- John 9:32-33
Like dominos when Jesus healed the man born blind, that act of mercy set in motion a long chain of reactions. The brilliance of the passage is in how it can help us recognize how disconnected we can be from what is.
The blind man sees clearer than anyone the absolute miracle of meeting Jesus and of healing. His response is simple: awe and wonder. How? Why? It does not matter. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
What is just as it is,* guides us toward the heart of the matter. Whereas our opinions, our questions, our judgements often disguise reality and therefore the miracle at the center of being alive.
This is comically illuminated in a cartoon Ronald Rolheiser describes in his book, The Shattered Lantern: Rediscovering a Felt Presence of God. The cartoon is of a family waking up in the morning. In the first frame the dad is driving his car to work and says to himself, “another dumb day, going to that same dumb office, to work on those same dumb numbers that I must have worked on a thousand times.” In the second frame the mom is cleaning the floor saying to herself, “Another dumb day cleaning this same dumb house I must have cleaned a thousand times.” In the next frame we see the older children on the school bus. One says to the other, “Another dumb day going to the same dumb school with the same dumb teachers working on the same dumb stuff we’ve been working on a thousand times before.” In the last frame we see the youngest child standing up in her crib, wide awake fresh for a new day, her arms up in the air facing the sun shouting, “Another Day!”
One thing that restores our health is to follow the man born blind and rediscover awe and wonder. Br. David Steindl-Rast describes this as Surprise. Other spiritual teachers call this “the second naiveté.” A state in which we, as adults, connect with the sacred center in life just as it is, just as we are. Marveling at life can be experienced every day at the center of being alive.
The happiest people on our planet are the people who have enough to thrive physically, socially, and spiritually and to live closely connected to the miracle of life and the peace available at the center of everything we do.
Yes, we can, and often do, get in our own way. It is also true that faithful and authentic prayer is an act of courageous and compassionate trust that what is going on and where we find ourselves is also where God is, and that is a miracle. That place is where we experience what the psalmist put into the famous words, “my cup runneth over” (Psalm 23).
* I first learned about the concept of “accepting what is as it is” from James Finley’s book, The Contemplative Heart.