"Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi."

Luke 5:27

What do you think of when someone looks at you? Can you trust them? Are they going to love you or somehow use you?

We live in the time of the fall. What does that mean? Before the fall, before we chose to separate ourselves from the perfect goodness of God, we looked upon one another with only reverence and love. Once we fell by choosing to sin we could no longer count on only reverence and love from the others who looked at us. Many hurtful and unloving ways entered how we began to look at and relate with each other because of our fall from God’s grace.

I see so much fear in so many eyes. I sense that many people are asking themselves who they could ever trust. In so many ways people have not been reverenced and loved in how they have been looked at. People have been abused, lied to, treated as sexual objects, used, manipulated, treated as a means to an end- and the list goes on. Fear and mistrust abound because of the crippling damage of the fall. In many ways this can lead to a distrustful mindset of looking to see who is going to take advantage of us next.

How do we deal with the fall that has created so much fear and distrust in how people might be looking at us? We have to always go to the One we can trust. We seek the One who has not fallen. Jesus saw the tax collector named Levi. He looked upon him with perfect reverence and love. Levi could trust Jesus not to use, abuse, manipulate, deceive or in any way hurt him. Jesus had not fallen from perfect love and reverence.

We, like Levi, are looked upon by Jesus. We, like Levi the sinner, can have complete trust that Jesus will not use, abuse, manipulate, deceive or in any way hurt us. Jesus has not fallen from perfect love and reverence and that is how he will always relate to us. That is how we deal with all the other looks and actions that have been hurtful to us by token of living in a fallen world.

OK, it is time to write a love letter. The letter is from Jesus to you. Put your name at the top of the blank page and let Jesus tell you how he, the one who gave his life for you on the cross, looks at you. Do this in prayer and quiet and let the Holy Spirit guide every word you write down in Jesus’ love letter to you.

God’s will!
+Fr. John