Blind in order to See

A very wise young lady once told me: You have to be blind in order to see. You have to be as blind as a bat. At first I went what? I mean is she crazy. But then I sat back and I listened to her talk. We have to be blind to ourselves in order to know God. We have to be blind to our own ambitions to see God’s plan. We have to say "fiat" and let God take control. We have to decrease so that God may increase.
In our lives, we all have ambitions. These ambitions may be to be a priest, a professional athlete, a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, or a multi-billionaire. They may be to be married and have a large family. Our ambitions also may be smaller and not all consuming. They may be to get a high grade on a test, score the winning goal, or even as simple as saying I love you to your mom. These ambitions are driving forces in our lives. They help motivate and push us towards a goal. This goal is one that our human nature and pride desire. It is what we devote so much time and energy into obtaining. How much of our time and energy could be directed towards a greater purpose? How much of our time and energy is being misused? A LOT!!!
We focus so much of our waking time and resources into obtaining this ambition that often times we ignore those things and people that mean the most to us. How many times have you seen or heard about parents who aren’t home because they are working until all hours of the night? How many times did your own parents miss things because they had somewhere else to be? How many times were we second fiddle to another’s ambition? Most of us can say at least a few times in our lives if not often. Didn’t it make you upset and angry to be second fiddle to something else? Yes it did.
How do you think God feels when we make HIM second fiddle in our lives? How do you think God feels (when HE is done laughing) when we tell HIM our plans and how we “need” life to be? HE feels unloved and injured. You may even say it’s a giant slap in the face to HIM. Here is a God that has given us everything that we could possibly need. HE even went so far as to give us Jesus, HIS only begotten Son. Yet, do we thank HIM for it constantly? Do we focus all our energies on HIS plan? NO WAY Jose!! We focus on our own desires. We are so wrapped up in our own ideas that we fail to see God.
When we fail to see God, we fail to see so many blessings. All around us there are countless blessings. And we are so blind with our own ambitions and plans that we don’t even see them!!!! How many days do we not even thank God for our life, food, loved ones, Jesus present in the Eucharist, etc? How many times? How many times does something, albeit very small, go our way in life? Do we thank God for these little gifts? Most of the time we don’t. We don’t even realize that HE has blessed us. We don’t realize since our eyes are blind to HIM and HIS gifts for us.
Our eyes are physically very much alive and working. I mean we see color, images, people, etc. But we don’t have our eyes trained. We have our eyes trained to be of this world. As Catholics, we are called to be not of this world. We are called to a life of Heavenly praise and prayer. We are called to a life of sacrifice. We are called to focus on God. We are called to retrain our eyes. When we retrain our eyes, like so many wonderful Saints before us, we see God. We become blind to our own ambitions and desires. We see HIM and HIS plan. We have to be blind in order to see…