IMAGES

IMAGES – 8th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year C

            We are confronted with countless images to help us remember something about products, institutions, politicians, entertainers, causes, truths, ideas, love, hate, special occasions and events. Some images may not reflect the truth, and can give us the wrong

understanding about someone or something.

            Images serve the truth when what they are picturing and imaging are true, and help us know the truth. Images imitate and give us imitations and likenesses, and carry impressions and resemblances about persons, places and things. Images can be exaggerated and can make persons, places, things and ideas more than they are. Many people make their living as “image makers”. Advertisers and political campaign managers come to mind. It’s possible that someone or some product or idea can be more image than reality, more form than substance, or only image!

            An image is best when it is a servant that leads us to the truth about someone, some product or idea. It’s hard for some images to lie, like a reliable camera that accurately images the person. Could that be why some people don’t like to have their picture taken? Our age, due to our great advances and abilities at mass communication, uses images to create ideas, people, products, and even the future. To some extent our age has made images reality, and reality images.

            Previous ages used what was clearly present in nature and human experience to help us understand less concrete, but very real, human and spiritual truths. That still is a very reliable and helpful use of images. There are many natural and human images which can help and lead us to deeper spiritual truths. This was the approach of the Master Teacher. “Jesus used images in speaking to the disciples.”

            The Scriptural images drawn from nature, nature’s processes, and human persons and experiences are just as good in the 20th century as in the 1st century. Jesus said to picture or imagine a blind man being a guide to another blind man. “Will they not both fall into a ditch?” What we wouldn’t do physically, we shouldn’t do spiritually. People do allow spiritually and morally blind people to lead them in spiritual and moral matters. The spiritually blind or impaired lead others who are spiritually blind or with impaired spiritual and moral vision into spiritual ditches.

            Just because someone has an extraordinary talent for a sport, or a musical instrument, or a great communicating skill or great wealth, doesn’t mean they necessarily have the needed spiritual vision or truth to be followed. Those who don’t have these skills may or may not have spiritual and moral vision. Sometimes we simply have to think something through with an image on the natural level to see a spiritual truth. We can generally assume most teachers know more than their students. We can conclude the Lord knows more about human nature and life than we do, therefore we need to follow His law and teachings.

            We can presume that if someone has a large item in their own eye, they need to remove it first before they can help someone remove a tiny item from their eye. This is also true spiritually. “Why look at the speck in your brother’s eye when you miss the plank in your own? ...Hypocrite, remove the plank from your own eye first; then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck in your brother’s eye.” A serious sin and fault affects our vision of others and life!

            We take for granted that a decayed tree cannot produce good fruit. We don’t always take it for granted that a morally and spiritually decayed person can’t produce good spiritual and moral fruit. “Each tree is known by its yield…A good man produces goodness from the good in his heart; an evil man produces evil out of his store of evil.” The wise Sirach used the image of a fruit to help us understand human character. “The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does a man’s speech disclose the bent of his mind.”

            Careful consideration, discernment, and use of images can help us be “steadfast and persevering…fully engaged in the Lord’s work”.

From the Diary of St. Faustina (848)

“Speak to the world about My mercy; let all mankind recognize My unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times, after it will come the day of justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of My mercy.”