If the “spiritual” eyes are not healthy

 3rd Sunday of Matthew    Matt. 6, 22-23

 

    “The eye is the lamp of the body”. If the eye is good, it is as though the whole body sees. If, however, the eye is not good, that much more will the rest of the body –which is not an eye –be in darkness.

The human eye is, in a certain sense, borrowing its light from other sources. On its own, the eye does not have light, but rather is an instrument with the ability to see, provided there is light. We are able to see with our eyes only if the object upon which we are gazing is illumined by some source of light –whether by the sun or even an artificial light. Our human eyes are not able to see on their own. And yet, no matter how bright the light might be, if the eyes are not healthy they will be unable to see.

God gave man both the nous, and the logic. He fashioned him like this in order for man to see, to judge, and to understand. No other creature on earth is fashioned in this way. And what is more, everything that applies to the bodily eyes, applies also to the nous and the logic, which are man’s spiritual eyes.

And so in this way, man’s nous and his logic are unable to see, unable to judge, or to properly assess if not illumined by light. And in the following instance, this light is Christ. “I am the light of the world”.

How unfounded we are when it comes to ourselves. And how often we  are mistaken –and necessarily so –when we think we see, judge, and assess properly without being illumined by the light of God. This is the great evil of humanity.

                                Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos