Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
February 11, 2007


How important is perspective to you?

If you ever have been to the New Cathedral, there is a little design flaw in its creation. When they installed one of the most recent set of mosaics, it was to replace the paintings in the east transept. The theme for the entire area was the resurrection. On the day of the great unveiling, people were gathered around. When the curtain came down, there were two gasps. The first was almost immediate as the huge angel that guarded the depiction of the empty tomb was pink. The second was because of the lettering across the bottom of the half dome in the transept. 90% of the people viewing the new mosaic saw the words “Christ is not risen, your faith is va…”. The words IF and VAIN were done too close the edge and were blocked by the pillars that supported the dome.

Perspective makes all the difference. The place from where you view the world is huge… The place from where you begin to understand things can make or break your faith life.

In the readings today, we see the difference that perspective makes. Jeremiah lived during the end of a turbulent time in Israel’s history. The political world was crashing down. So Jeremiah says to his people: “You can either view this as the end – like a tree planted in the desert, or you can trust that even though the world looks like a desert, the roots are tapped into water, deep down and nourishing.”

Jesus’ beatitudes say: Here is how the world looks from God’s point of view. The underdogs win. Those on the bottom of life have a blessedness that will not be taken away from them. Those on the top – beware…
Paul – the only perspective that matters is seeing the world from the eyes of what God did to sin and death in the resurrection. IF Christ is not raised, then we are fools. BUT IF HE IS… then watch out.

The danger of being trapped in history is just like that of the Cathedral mosaic – sometimes, being right in the middle of the struggle, we can’t see how it will turn out. Our boyfriend or girlfriend leaves. We get fired from a job. A small misunderstanding becomes a huge rift in a relationship. We are rejected from an accelerated nursing program. Sickness hits. And from our view – it is catastrophe. It seems like the end of the world.

When everything seems like that in your world, I ask that you imagine yourself before that situation in the same way that people were before the mosaic in the Cathedral. Will you trust that perspective is everything? Will you trust that even though you can’t see it, or know how it will turn out, God is active? Will you keep praying so that you can come to the place where you can see the “IF” that is waiting to change everything about the situation.

Our faith tells us: Christ indeed is risen. Everything else will fall into place, even though we can’t see it. Will you trust that? Will you try to see from God’s perspective and trust just a bit more, love just a bit more and be the presence of God just a bit more into the world?