His intellectual horizons embrace little more than a tangible reality. It seems that he has lost the ability to see the facts in three dimensions. He begins to observe everything on only one side: his small personal and immediate interests without the depth of what is eternal.
Newsroom (August 9, 2021, 12:40 PM, Gaudium Press) The proverb says that the worst kind of blind person is the one who does not want to see. The visual deficiency “of the spirit” is, in fact, a dangerous evil and, unfortunately, quite common. For example, what can we say about someone who, in front of a beautiful panorama or a great monument, puts his attention on the defective details of the scene and is not able to pay attention to the beauty of the thing? It would be better to be with a physically blind person than with one who is “blind in spirit,” who despises what deserves admiration.
We can verify this situation in today’s Gospel.
At that time, the Jews began to murmur about Jesus because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven. They commented, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? How then can he say that he came down from heaven? (Jn. 6:41-42)
The people had just witnessed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves; but still could not believe in the power of Jesus, in His divinity. They could not believe in the words of the One who had just performed the unbelievable. And why? Because they were people dominated by a materialistic conception of life, unable to see “two feet ahead” when the subject was supernatural.
“The materialist is primarily concerned with the sensible enjoyment of life. His intellectual horizons embrace little more than a tangible reality. It seems that he has lost the ability to see the facts in three dimensions. He begins to observe everything on only one side: his small personal and immediate interests without the depth of what is eternal. For this reason, he is unable to grasp the higher realities of a supernatural order. The materialist is near-sighted of the spirit. He becomes incapable of raising his gaze to the great horizons of Faith that God offers him in his mercy.
“From this materialistic point of view was born the impossibility of accepting God’s greatest gift to humanity: the Eucharist”[1].
***
While world events are showing frightening instability and the situation in the Church makes the future unpredictable, many people continue to see only their material interests. Will they open their eyes only when they are called to answer before God?
By Afonso Costa
Compiled by Ena Alfaro
[1] CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamiglio. New Insights on the Gospels. São Paulo: Lumen Sapientiae; Città del Vaticano: L.E.V., 2014, v. IV, p. 282.
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