“The serpent told the Woman, “You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.””
Genesis 3:4-5,7 MSG
“Immediately the two of them did “see what’s really going on”—saw themselves naked! They sewed fig leaves together as makeshift clothes for themselves.”
He said, “Go and tell this people: “ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Isaiah 6:9-10
This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
Matt 13:13
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
`John 9:41
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind…
2 Peter 1:8
There is enough light for those who desire only to see, and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition.
Pascals Penses
“Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!
Matt 6:22-23
No surprise — I’ve got a problem. Actually I have lots of problems; this post is about one problem I have become increasingly aware of. There’s consolation in the fact that everybody has this problem, some more or less than others, but everyone is afflicted.
It is a seeing problem. “seeing we do not see”. Both enigmatic and paradoxical, “seeing we do not see” is nearly undetectable in a post-modern, disenchanted, secular world, which has mostly abandoned spiritual realities.
[What follows is a narrative developed in the process of wrestling with “seeing we do not see”. It assembles numerous ideas and concepts from various sources found to be helpful in coming to better understanding “seeing we do see”.]
“seeing we do not see” is a condition of fallen humanity, first appearing in the Garden of Eden.
Before eating fruit of the tree of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve’s eyes were healthy, full of light. Possessing a capacity for communion with God and the whole of creation. — nous 1The nous is the God-given faculty of the soul whose purpose is the perception of God and divine things.Fr Stephen Freeman With eyes perceiving that which was Divine, their vision was “sacramental”, able to behold invisible spiritual truths shining though material reality; seeing a world “charged with the grandeur of God.” The sacramental gaze (noetic perception) 2“Noetic perception” is a phrase that describes the ability of the human heart to perceive that which is Divine. As such, it is our capacity for communion with God and the whole of creation. … Without such a perception, we do not see the truth of things. By the same token, without such a perception, we cannot know the truth of our own selves.
Ephesians 2:16: “But we have the mind of Christ.”- is a noetic claim created a sacred encounter.
Eating the fruit their “eyes were opened”, knowing evil, nous retreated ; blinded to divine reality, losing the capacity for communion with God and the whole creation; their vision became “pornographic” – greedy, consumptive, and objectifying. Pornographic vision created an objectifying and deadening I-It relation with the world. By contrast, the sacramental vision beheld an I-Thou relation, a meeting with a holy other. 3See R. Beck post http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2022/08/a-covenant-with-my-eyes-part-3-seeing.html
With eternal life forfeited, death became their legacy, “…for dust you are and to dust you will return.”. Without the divine, life lost its meaning and purpose; the only remaining option for meaning and purpose coming from within, they became their own god. — Seeing they could not see.
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
The reality of being is beautiful and good, when the lens through which we see the world is colored by fear, lust, anger, and anxiety? We do not see what is – we see counterfeits, parasites, and dark wannabe’s. We do not see God. We do not see others. We do not even see ourselves. At least, none of these appear in the truth of their existence. 4FrStephen Freeman Adam and Eve and and their progeny are blind, …the blind leading the blind, both fall into a pit.
Following Christ is about moral living, but seeing comes before doing, knowing before moral action. how can you take proper action in the world if you’re blind, lost, deluded, ignorant, or confused? When we behave badly what we’re often experiencing is less about failing to live up to Christ than a complete misperception of Christ. And when Christ is misperceived all sorts of bad things soon follow. 5http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-epistemological-crisis-of-cross_0835901764.html The seeing of “seeing they do see” is misperception of Christ.
Confessing my my blindness, I pray “God open the eyes of my heart that I may know…”
Perhaps the Emmaus story is an answer to my prayer :
“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.”
Luke 24:30-31 NIV
So Much To Think About
STILL ON THE JOURNEY
- 1The nous is the God-given faculty of the soul whose purpose is the perception of God and divine things.Fr Stephen Freeman
- 2“Noetic perception” is a phrase that describes the ability of the human heart to perceive that which is Divine. As such, it is our capacity for communion with God and the whole of creation. … Without such a perception, we do not see the truth of things. By the same token, without such a perception, we cannot know the truth of our own selves.
Ephesians 2:16: “But we have the mind of Christ.”- is a noetic claim - 3
- 4FrStephen Freeman
- 5
I’m glad you’ve gathered and harvested this crop of thoughts. I will read it more then once.