How many of you get annoyed with windshields that get dirty so easily this time of year, especially as we start getting snow. Or, those of you who wear glasses, do you get annoyed when your glasses get dirty or smudged. I do. I wear contacts, but I also have contacts and it’s a pain to keep them clean.
Sometimes we get a smudged perspective on life. [Reveal clean sheet of glass] For example, receiving these negative thoughts, or we hear something about someone and we have a clouded (or smudged) perspective on that person. [I draw on the glass with Dry Erase markers].
Remember, as I say with gossip, ask yourself three questions: Is it true? Is it loving? Is it necessary?
Or as we read something negative on social media [draw more smudging] and immediately think that it is must be accurate, without looking into it. Many of our world views, or views of justice issues are smudged because of a hurt from our background. I know of a white man, who had a bad encounter with a black man decades ago, and now won’t trust any black person.
There can also be a distorted vision, because of a mental health disorder. [Smudge more on glass] A priest friend of mine was suffering from depression for years, until he went to get help. Now with medication his view on life and ministry is not clouded with dread.
And on the opposite end, there is also the issue of addiction, this past week we had a funeral of a 21 year who lost his battle with addiction. Drugs probably weren’t the cause of his death, but the physical toil on his body due to a history of drug use had an effect.
And actually, addiction can come in many fashions . . . sex addictions, gambling addiction, work addiction. A new one that I have just learned about it is REVENGE ADDICTION. This is manifested when a person, or group, feels there is a wrong done (whether real or imagined) and needs to “get back at them.” Studies from Yale University reveal that your brain “in a grievance” looks a lot like your brain on drugs. In fact, brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics.
This may help explain why so many people, even important people, can’t control an urge to lash out on perceived enemies. That is, their way of looking at things, is colored or smudged. [Fill in more smudging]. And political groups rely on this to raise money, and media capitalizes on this to grab viewerships. It’s weird . . . crazy attracts crazy.
What can we do about it? [Hold up glass in front of my face] If you find that your view on life or on particular things looks different than most people around you. Maybe it’s NOT those other people who are in the wrong. Maybe it’s you. If you are a young person talk it over with your parents, or a trusted adult. If you are the adult . . . go talk it over with a professional therapist.
In the gospel, we hear about Mary. She would have plenty of reasons to have a smudged view on life. She’s engaged to a man, then the angel comes to her and says, “God wants you to have a baby, but not from your fiancé.” She must have thought that the fiancé might leave you, or the shame it will cost her family. She could get scorned, shunned, maybe even stoned to death because she’s pregnant without being married.
And Mary clears her fears [Clean smudging off glass]. She allows God’s presence to be shone through her. That is, the compassion and forgiveness. She doesn’t get clouded by other’s views or the fear of what can happen to her. Instead, she gives birth to truth, to hope, to peace.
Pope Francis, in has General Audience just over a month ago on November 18, talked about Mary. He said,
“There is no better way to pray, than to place oneself in an attitude of openness like Mary. That is to pray: ‘Lord, what You want, when You want, and how You want.’
This attitude allows many believers to face reality without getting upset when their days are filled with problems,” (or I say smudged with a distorted view) “knowing that in humble love offered in each situation, we become instruments of God’s grace.”
So here’s your prayer this week . . . when you find yourself not seeing clearly what to do with an issue or a situation (and that un-clearness might be coming from so many factors), prayer, “God, what do you want me to do?”
That kind of prayer can turn restlessness into calm, can wipe away the cloudiness of what to do into availability to let God shine though, Again ask, “God what do you want me to do?”