What is Unseen is Eternal
Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen;
for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Cor 4:13—5:1
10th Ordinary Sunday
One day someone shouted in church “Oy nandito si Piolo sa simbahan!”
“Ow? Totoo ba yan. Check muna natin.” So everyone ran out of the church to check the person that from afar looked like the movie artist. But they were disappointed because it turned out to be just their parish priest who was also fortunately handsome. “Ay si padre diay.”
We humans are like this. We adhere to the saying “to see is to believe”. We don’t believe unless we see proof. But in spite of our initial incredulity, deep inside we already believe whatever we hear from someone even before verification.
This is the case with Adam and Eve in Genesis and the family of Jesus in today’s gospel.
Adam believed Eve because she told him that she bit the forbidden fruit and found it to be really good to eat. But before that Eve had believed the serpent when she saw that the fruit was really attractive and enticing as the serpent had told her. Both easily believed what they were told. Gn 3:9-15
Similarly in the gospel Jesus’ family was at once worried in hearing the news that Jesus was too busy to stop and eat because He was helping people. They were even concluded that He has gotten mad. Mk 3:20-35
From these episodes we notice that humans usually and oftentimes immediately act from what they can hear, see, even touch and taste. Many a times we are too credulous to anything that we sense. But the more essential things are invisible to the eye, as the fox had told the little Prince in Exupery’s book. That is why St Paul in his letter to Corinth wrote that only what is invisible is eternal. He told the Corinthians that we were given the spirit of faith. This means we believe not because we see it but because we trust in it even if beyond the reach of our senses. 2 Cor 4:13—5:1
Therefore, let us ask ourselves are we like Adam and Eve who are swayed by what we only see and taste? Or are we like the relatives of Jesus who put credit only on what stories we hear? Or are we moving by faith and not by sight, as St Paul wrote?
Yet in spite of our erroneous thinking in the Psalm we say “With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption”.
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