Wednesday – 11th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

Blind Spots!

Heiskell Homestead

Almost 3 years ago, Ginger and I took a road trip - May 2023 -- down to Tennessee to visit our daughter and family who had moved there only a few months before. It was Ginger’s first time seeing their new home and homestead, my second!  It was also a necessity as we were driving our grandson’s car, the last tangible piece of their life back in Chicago!  While the drive was uneventful, it did take a bit of time getting used to Tyler’s car.  It lacked a lot of the bells and whistles that our car has - GPS, Bluetooth, satellite radio, connectivity to our phones, etc.  But most importantly it lacked our blind spot alert and rear-view camera!!  Wow, those little extras always make me feel like we have a guardian angel beside us in the car reminding us when danger approaches. And when you are suddenly in a car without them, you feel a bit blind!  (Wow!  Talk about blind spots!  Who could have guessed all that has happened to us these past 3 years, all the changes we were so unprepared for, the move we made barely one year later!  That bare spot in today’s pic that became our home!)  Truth be told, we can have blind spots not just about the present, but the past and even the future as well!

It’s a good reminder that we all have blind spots in life, moments when we literally miss what is right beside us, right in front of our eyes.  Sometimes, perhaps too often, we let ourselves get distracted – maybe a song, that text message or that book we are so engrossed in that we didn’t hear mom yelling.  Car manufacturers certainly understand our easily distracted nature.  Every time I put our car into reverse, the volume of the radio automatically goes down!

If today’s Gospel sounds familiar, you would be correct.  Barely 4 months ago, we heard this same Gospel reading.  It was Ash Wednesday and the intent was obvious.  We were entering a time of self-reflection and penitence in preparation for the events of Holy Week.  So why now?  Why do we have to hear this now?

Maybe that is one of our blind spots – thinking that these are just practices for the 40 days of Lent and then we get back to ‘normal’ life.  Perhaps it’s a reminder that prayer, fasting and almsgiving are not just Lenten practices; these religious disciplines are meant for all of us all the time.  Scary!  You mean I should pray every day?  Fast every day? Take care of others every day?  And even more troubling – I have to do it for the right reasons?  Not for show but out of love! Sounds like way too much time and effort. Maybe we would rather keep that blind spot!

So where is your blind spot?  When you were having that morning cup of coffee, did you miss the beauty of the sunrise?  Did you so immerse yourself in bingeing some tv shows that you never left yourself some quiet time to pray and reflect on the events of the day? When you were chowing down on that dinner out at your favorite restaurant (finally), did you notice the guy asking for a handout when you walked in the door?

Consider this our blind spot alert!  Prayer!  Fasting!  Almsgiving!  It’s not just for Lent anymore!

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