Healthy vs. Unhealthy Eyes 01.22.23 – Lk. 11:29-36

 

Dear St. Paul family,

The gospel lesson was from Lk. 11:27-36, about the eye being the lamp of the body.

How are your eyes? Are they dry, have glaucoma, cataract? Hopefully not and you have healthy eyes. And of course, eat your carrots. Now they won’t restore your vision, but they will provide some good nutrients to keep it healthy.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.” (Lk. 11:34)

Another word for “good” is or clear (AMP) or healthy (NIV) or sound (RSV).

What else does he mean by “the eye” than simply the mind, which will never become simple unless it contemplates the simple light? (St Symeon the New Theologian)

The eye is the window to not only our minds, but our souls.

Unhealthy eyes are diseased, maybe not with physical diseases but there are sayings of “green-monstered eyes or jaundiced eyes” which are jealous or critical eyes respectively. Therefore healthy eyes are the opposite, ones that are content regardless of the circumstances and generous eyes.

To have healthy eyes let us:
 

1. Cleanse Our Hearts

   • By self-examination, repentance and confession

   • Maybe it is us that is not “seeing” well

2. Cleanse Our Hearts

• By meditation, prayer, fasting and nurturing virtues

Let us move the needle to unhealthy eyes to healthy eyes by cleansing our hearts by true repentance and seeking Him through our spiritual disciplines.
Unhealthy vs. Healthy Eyes

Fr. James

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