O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
– Robert Burns
Robert Burns believed that the greatest gift is to be able to see ourselves as others see us. I would take that one step further and say that the greatest gift is to see ourselves as God sees us. For that is to see us as we truly are with all of our pretenses stripped away.
Our Holy Father believes seeing through God’s eyes is a gift of the Holy Spirit, wisdom. “It is the grace of being able to see everything with the eyes of God. It is simply this: Seeing the world…situations, conjunctures, problems, everything with God’s eyes. This is wisdom. Often we see things as we want to see them or according to our heart, with love, with hate, with envy. No, this is not God’s eyes. Wisdom is what the Holy Spirit does within us so that we can see everything with God’s eyes. This is the gift of wisdom.”
Wisdom is traditionally the first gift of the Holy Spirit, followed by understanding, which is closely related to wisdom. In the words of Pope Francis, “God asked Solomon what gift he wanted to receive. Solomon did not ask for wealth, success, fame, or a long and happy life. Instead, he asked for ‘an understanding heart that knows how to distinguish good from evil’ (1 Kings 3:9). This is wisdom.”
Of course, the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift from which flow the sevenfold gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. The gifts of the Spirit dwell within us as does the Holy Spirit, but like all grace, we must be open to receive the Spirit and its gifts. Let us pray with the opening line of the ancient Pentecost sequence…”Come Holy Spirit. Veni Sancte Spiritus”…for the gift of seeing with God’s eyes.
This post is also available in/Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish