Dear Beloved of Trinity Church,
In 1972 Johnny Nash recorded the hit song “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone.” It’s light and joyful melody, wonderfully invites your body to sway and puts a smile on your face. I was reminded of this song while reading Passions of the Soul by Rowan Williams. He writes that “our habitual mental and spiritual condition is one in which we quite simply don’t see clearly.” He continues on to say, “We don’t know things as we ought to know them; we don’t see them as we ought to see them.” Our brokenness - our sin - distorts our vision and understanding. We struggle to see the truth of things as they really are, whether good or bad, beautiful or painful.
To help us see more clearly, Williams draws on the wisdom of Evagrius of Pontus, a 4th-century monastic theologian. Evagrius described three ways of seeing: the angelic way, the human way, and the diabolic way.
· The angelic way is to see reality as it truly is “as things emerge from the hand of God.”
· The diabolic way sees the world through the lens of self-interest and consumerism, where everything is reduced to its usefulness to us: “What can you do for me?”
· The human way wavers between the two, struggling to see clearly but often sliding back into ego-driven perception, “stuffing the world into the bag of the self.”
Knowing this, we strive to see the world the angelic way. This does not mean wearing rose-colored glasses or pretending things are better than they are. Rather, it means seeing the world truthfully—through the redemptive lens of God’s love and grace. It means recognizing both the pain and brokenness of life and the beauty and possibility that can and will be in and through the love of God.
And one day, one glorious day, it really will be a bright, bright, bright, bright sunshiny day—for all of creation.
Peace and Blessings,
Paul+