June 11, 2007

Vision

When St. Barnabas met the believers in Antioch, he "saw the grace of God," as the Acts of the Apostles describes it today.

It makes me reflect on what I "see" in the people around me. Do I see their faults and the ways that they make things difficult? Do I see what they can get done or how they can be useful to my purposes?

Or do I notice the grace of God in them? Do I see what God has worked in them, perhaps in their faith, their faithfulness, or the love and gentleness that God has put in their hearts?

And so I try to remember that I am free, with the help of the Spirit, to choose a perspective: to pay attention to the negative, or, like Barnabas, to "see the grace of God."
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:30 AM

    This ties in with and clarifies my latest post for me. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rashfriar8:59 PM

    Peace! Barnabas means 'son of encouragement.' That is what he did so well, as St. Luke tells us. May he give you encouragement in your new assignment and in continuing with your blog. God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11:05 AM

    Good point!

    ReplyDelete

Faithful, or even just thoughtful criticisms are always welcome. Uninformed rudeness to other posters or to the Lord and His Church is not.

I also reserve the right to reject comments promoting things like private revelations and fringe points of view, if it seems to me like they are being presented in a misleading way.

If you raise a disagreement with something I say but I do not respond, please do not feel slighted or insulted, or imagine that this automatically means I disagree or agree with you. It's just that I don't find the comment box to be a constructive medium for certain forms of debate.