In his third year as Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis wrote Laudato Si’, an encyclical that invites all Catholics and people of goodwill to reflect upon the beauty of the world that God created and the need for us to protect this world, our ‘common home’.
In paragraph 84 of the encyclical, Pope Francis highlights the importance of the place where we were born, connecting it beautifully to our relationship with God. He writes: The history of our friendship with God is always linked to particular places which take on an intensely personal meaning; we all remember places, and revisiting those memories does us much good.
His encouragement to revisit our memories of particular places has been introduced to the ecology workshops that I have been involved in organizing in China. Participants are encouraged to be creative in representing a place of early memory. Some have drawn the small vegetable garden that was beside their home in childhood years. Some have used coloured paper and glue to make models of the trees they climbed as children. Some have represented the fields and rivers where they played so many years ago.
When the participants of these workshops gather in small groups to explain their artistic creations to one another, a great energy develops within the group. The painting or the paper model seems to come alive as they speak, allowing them to tell even more stories connected with those places. The flow of stories reveals the depth of truth in what Pope Francis wrties in that key paragraph. We are indeed people who are connected to places, especially the places of our childhood. Revisiting those memories, especially through art, provides the opportunity to savour the depths of our experiences in childhood.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus cures the man who was born blind, a cure that is not without its consequences. It causes consternation in the town. Interestingly, Jesus is not involved in the heated conversation and debate. Others try to resolve the complex situation that has developed.
If the man born blind had been invited to make an artisitic representation of a significant place in his life, he might well have painted the scene where his sight had been restored, the place where he was first able to distinguish colours. Due to the intense discussions that took place between himself and those who questioned him, he would certainly have been busy including many interesting people in his artistic work.
Being blind from birth is an affliction that most of us are not able to comprehend. However, there are parts of our lives that can remain hidden from us for decades, areas that can bring us great life if we could only see them properly. One way to remove our blindness is to represent those early years in an artistic way. Similarly, writing a poem about one’s own childhood experiences can bring events out into the light in a new way. A reflective essay about what happened in previous years can also provide a fresh perspective on personal experiences.
Artwork expressing paragraph 84 of Laudato Si "...we all remember places..."
There is a temptation in our world, fueled by advertising, to constantly seek what we do not already have in our possession, that temptation encouraging us to believe that what we already have is not enough. A more reflective way of living invites us to open our eyes, and taking the man in today’s gospel as a guide, to see what we have been blind to since our earliest years.
Those whom I have seen drawing pictures of the village or fields of their childhood, deepened in meaning by their joyful sharing, remind me that trust in what we have already received in life is possible so long as we have a way to open our eyes to the depths of mystery that are waiting to be discovered in those stories. In a similar way, artistic expression can be the means by which difficult events of the past are represented in a new way, changing the way we see them and therefore facilitating healing that can bring unexpected but joyful freedom to our lives.
In today’s first reading, Samuel is sent by God to the house of Jesse in search of a new king. The surprise is that David was so young, but yet chosen. It reminds us that the unexpected is often weaved into God’s plans for the world. The unexpected should not disturb us. It is balanced out in an assuring way by today’s psalm when we hear that the caring shepherd will lead us to restful waters where our hearts will be revived.
If we can trust in the surprises offered by God as we look back on our lives and see for the first time what has always been there, we will share in the experience of those who are nourished by the restful waters that are promised in today’s psalm. This could be part of our conversion of heart during this Lenten season, a fresh view of our lives, one that happens in a spirit of appreciation for how God can stir something new in our hearts.
Encouragement for seeing with new eyes is also encouraged by St. Paul in today’s second reading. He writes about the need for us to wake from our sleep so that Christ will shine on us.
An invitation to conversion is offered to us by the Church during this season of Lent. In as much as it invites us to see the beauty of what God has created and given to us, it also invites us to let go of those ways of living and thinking that are restrictive and life-denying. The possibility of taking these steps forward in our lives is accompanied by the promise of something even more meaningful, something that is finally offered to the man who was born blind. Like him, we are given the opportunity to believe in Jesus, the great source of hope for our world. This is our ultimate opportunity to move out of the wilderness and into a world that is filled with beauty and new possibilities as we prepare to celebrate the great season of Easter.
Columban Fr Dan Troy lives and works in China.
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