Perhaps our Lenten journey this year could be struggling with some questions that would give us these Easter eyes. As Bishop Klaus Hemmerle wrote “I wish each of us Easter eyes, able to perceive in death, life; in guilt, forgiveness; in separation, unity; … in the human, God; in God, the human, and in the ‘I’, the ‘you’.” (The God Who Won’t Let Go, Peter van Breemen, SJ)

To deal with this challenge, we need to be very attentive to what we see, hear and feel in our relationships and how we respond. We need ‘new eyes’ that show forth hope, joy, expectation, new life and lots of love.

“We must dare to be love in a world that does not know how to love” as Charles de Foucauld once said. In our relationships, we need to see beyond the externals; each person is a mystery developing as God brings forth day by day the marvels of God’s creation, which each of us is. Sometimes, we are gifted with a friend in whom God’s presence is so obvious by the inner growth taking place that we can almost watch the transformation taking place. We can sense that person’s pain also because new growth usually demands a price to pay. Then we can appreciate those words in scripture, “Unless the grain of wheat dies….”

A friend of mine, who has been married for 50 years, told me that her husband is constantly revealing a new side of himself which makes their love grow deeper each day. That is looking at someone with “Easter eyes”. What a witness to me. During this Lenten season, let us ask ourselves the questions which Jesus asked: What are you looking for? What do you want me to do for you?

Do I dare to be love in a world that does not know how to love? The Spirit of Love lives in us – let us free that gift that God has given us. Let us be that fire, that light, that can change the world. Come Holy Spirit, transform me into the disciple that can see You in my life and in the lives of my neighbors.