{"id":4930,"date":"2016-10-30T10:16:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T15:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/?p=4930"},"modified":"2016-11-03T15:34:46","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T20:34:46","slug":"seeing-with-the-eyes-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/spiritual-reflections\/seeing-with-the-eyes-of-god","title":{"rendered":"Seeing with the eyes of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reflection on the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. First reading: Wisdom 11.22-12.2; Second reading: 2 Thessalonians 1.11-2.2; Gospel: Luke 19.1-10<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Jesus<\/a>

Jesus sees Zacchaeus in the tree. Sue Bentley\/FreeBibleimages.org<\/p><\/div>\n

Jesus’ life was spent teaching us about God\u2019s plan for all creation and what it means to bring to fruition and to live the Reign of God here on Earth\u2014a world that is peaceful, just, and inclusive, where all of our actions are led by love, forgiveness, and compassion for all. Over and over again in the Scriptures, Jesus teaches us how we are to treat each other, how we are to see and understand God, how we are to pray, how we are to see all of God’s creation as sacred, how we are to live with hope, mercy, and love.<\/p>\n

In reflecting on the story of Zacchaeus in Luke\u2019s Gospel, Pope Francis says that Jesus \u201calways opens new areas of life; He does not halt at appearances but looks at the heart.\u201d Pope Francis says that Zacchaeus was surprised at Jesus\u2019 openness to him, a tax collector and a sinner, even to the point of Jesus asking to stay with Zacchaeus at his home.<\/p>\n

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\u201cJesus\u2019 gaze goes beyond sins and prejudices; He sees a person with the eyes of God who does not stop at past evil, but perceives the future good.\u201d (Pope Francis)<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cJesus\u2019 gaze goes beyond sins and prejudices,” the pope says. “He sees a person with the eyes of God, who does not stop at past evil but perceives the future good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often our response is to correct, reprimand, and reproach. However, Pope Francis says that Jesus\u2019 response to Zacchaeus shows us another way: reflecting back to people their true value, which is what God sees despite everything, despite all of our mistakes and sinfulness. This response, the Pope says, brings out the goodness in people and gives them confidence to grow and change.<\/p>\n

For Pope Francis, \u201call are encouraged to have emerge the image of God imprinted in their heart\u2026and rejoice over the surprises of the mercy of God\u2026Our God of surprises!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reflection on the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. First reading: Wisdom 11.22-12.2; Second reading: 2 Thessalonians 1.11-2.2; Gospel: Luke 19.1-10 Jesus’ life was spent teaching us about God\u2019s plan for all creation and what it means to bring to fruition and to live the Reign of God here on Earth\u2014a world that is peaceful, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4930"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4938,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions\/4938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scarboromissions.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}