We Out in the east hallway here at Church, and on the way to the cafeteria, just at the turn where there are a few steps going up, there hangs a series of photos which recall the wonderful parish mission Fr. Wally Hyclak gave us back in 1999.

It’s theme was “Building the City of God.”

on  On the first night of the mission, we considered the “challenge of spirituality,” which is to see ourselves and each other through the eyes of God.

That leads us to some very particular understandings of today’s Gospel and the two greatest commandments: to love God, and our neighbors as ourselves.

Now when it comes to loving God, most of us don’t have much of a problem, unless, of course, we happen to be mad at God at the moment for something bad that’s happened to us or one of our loved ones.

But in general, when we look out upon creation, we see how good God has been to us in giving us all the beauty and resources we have. And our hearts become filled with praise and thankfulness.

But when it comes to loving our neighbor as ourselves, well, that can be the real challenge.

It’s because we see so much bothersome, pestering, aggravating, and sometimes downright evil behavior in our fellow travelers in this journey of life. And humanly, our first instinct is to define all others in terms of what they do.

Good people do good things. Bad people do bad things.

But the challenge is still there: we’ve got to love them as we love ourselves.

Now the Bible gives us some very helpful perspectives to meet this challenge; essentially it is seeing each other through the eyes of God.

In the book of Genesis, as the Bible begins with the wonderful story of creation, at the end of each day’s work, God looks at what He’s made and He calls it good. Then on the 6th day, after He creates us humans, He looks at all He has made, and He pronounces it “very good!”

So for starters, we, too, should be looking at one another as good people, or, at the very least, giving to each other the proverbial “benefit-of-the-doubt.”

God sees us also through eyes of caring.

In Matthew 7: 26, Jesus says look at the birds in the sky; they don’t have to work for what they eat as we do. Will the Father not also provide for you?

God sees us intimately, and by name.

Again in Matthew 7, Jesus says even all the hairs on our head are counted.

Even we don’t know that about ourselves. We know how many are in the sink or around the shower drain, don’t we?

So God knows and sees us more closely than we know and see ourselves.

Jesus shows us how God supports us.

In Luke 19, Zaccheus, the short-in-stature, and looked-down upon tax collector, climbs up a tree just to see Jesus. Jesus rewards him with a home visit - a big deal for a person like Zaccheus!

Jesus sees us as family members.

In Matthew 12, Jesus responds to the announcement that His mother and brothers had arrived, He asks “Who are My mother and brothers and sisters?  Those who hear the word of God and keep it are mother, and sister, and brother to me.”

God sees us through eyes of simplicity.

Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of His disciples, who were arguing about who was more and less important. He said: “Unless you become like the children (i. e. simple in faith), you can’t get into heaven.

God sees us through eyes of honesty.

Luke 16 quotes Jesus crying woe to the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. Jesus goes on to show us His Father’s eyes of love when He says: “As the Father has so generously loved us, so should we love each other.”

Jesus had eyes of concern.

He fed the hungry people. He cried over Jerusalem because they were missing the point.

God has eyes of forgiveness: the story of the prodigal child.

In John 15, Jesus says: “I no longer call you servants but friends.”

So to meet the challenge of loving each other as we love ourselves, a very helpful way is to look at the others in our lives through the eyes of God:
 A– as quality creation
 B - caringly,
 C - attentively
 D - supportively
 E - as fellow members, hopefully baptized, in this earthly family of God,
 F - simply
 G - honestly
 H - lovingly
 I - concernedly
 J - forgivingly
 K - friendly

      Thank you.