Given all that, however, it also needs to be said that even though we claim 20/20 vision, it could be said that we often do not truly see. Perhaps the word understand or appreciate might be a better term. I know for a certain that there are many things I see very day and never think about fu the, even a beautiful sunset or the face of a child or the sight of children playing in a school yard, beautiful sights but never reflected on for contemplation.

I often take time to read Thomas Merton's diaries (Merton, the Trappist monk). He walked in the woods on his monastery grounds practically every day and every day he would notice something different in nature. He would comment on the weather for that day, for instance, pointing out that it was hot and muggy, sweaty and sticky or he would point out that the trees glistened with frost. He would write about how his sandaled feet felt walking over dry leaves. He noticed things that I surely never see, all the more to my loss, of course.

Perhaps it is true to say then that all of us suffer from some sort of non-physical myopia, lack of attention, lack of insight, lack of appreciation. So much in our daily experience escapes our understanding.

What is even more discouraging is that there are so many human events happening in this world every day that we pay so little attention to. Most of us read the daily newspaper or watch television news and perhaps we will notice certain world situations that are terribly distressing: On the day I wrote this homily the morning paper's headlines told us that five more U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq, hundreds of Kenyan people were killing each other with rocks and machetes, Palestinian families were struggling to get across the border into Egypt so that could buy oil, medicine and food for their tables. I didn't even finish reading the articles. Isn't that interesting? I just said to myself: "Well, what can I do anyway. All that is on the other side of the world. Sadly, I did not even have any interior sense of compassion for those people. All this happens every day. What can you do? Well, you (I) can think about it, pray about it, let it sink into our consciousness. What if any of this should happen to me?

Given all this, there is a story in our gospel for this Sunday about someone who did care about blindness, Jesus of Nazareth; he saw the seriousness of it all and he did what he could in that situation. Jesus, obviously, did not cure every who appealed to him, but, for whatever reason, he did cure this young man.

The question to ask is not how did Jesus cure this man, but rather how can each of us heal like Jesus did? Obviously, we are not miracle-workers but perhaps we could learn better how to appreciate the humanity of the people I mentioned above, even though they may be thousands of miles apart from us. Every human person is precious in God's "eyes."

The second thing we might begin to see if we allow Jesus to heal our blindness is the overlooked population. They are the ones who are always there but often unseen because they do not count in anyone's eyes. These are the poor, the homeless, the hungry, the out-of-work, immigrants, the underemployed, the marginalized and the handicapped. Sometimes we are even forced to see them because they are obnoxious to us. They are always there, always disturbing our peace, always making us think.

And lastly, perhaps we could let Jesus heal our blindness if we tried deliberately to notice this day's natural beauty, whether of nature, of our work, or even of the little things we can't control, the things that disturb our peace. If we were simply to say, "thanks Lord for reminding me to notice that," that would be enough.

Finally, we must say that none of us chooses deliberately to be blind. It's just that we don't pay attention; so many other things in our lives distract us.

So, the next time you do notice something so beautiful that makes you gasp with awe and wonder, just say: "Thanks God. Now, help me keep my eyes open to all those other things in life that are not always so beautiful but are still somehow filled with sacred meaning.

The scriptures: I Samuel 16: 1,6-7, 10-13 Ephesisns 5: 8-14, John 9: 1-41