Seeing Clearly: Homily for Thursday, July 23, 2026

The Word of the Lord says, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, following me in the desert in a land unsown.” But they don’t remember. They abandon the devotion of their youth. The leaders won’t listen to Jeremiah and ultimately the community and Jeremiah wind up in two different places in exile. Readings for Today.

Seeing Clearly

I’m sure that all of us have had the experience of having a visit to the eye doctor. I got this privilege every year because I have a history of glaucoma on both sides of my family even though I don’t have it. And there’s one part of the eye exam that is very interesting. You look through this, I don’t even know what to call it, and the eye doctor changes the lenses and you’re told, you’re asked rather, which looks clearer, right or left?

And I think that’s actually in a way a good metaphor for what we hear today in the readings. Both the gospel and the first reading mention people who have looked away. And with sin, I think it’s often the case that we don’t look and see clearly. We’re fooled perhaps by our own wisdom or our reason can convince us of just about anything if it’s not directed in a good way. There’s a reason why we call reason “right reason” because it’s the reason that’s actually accurate, makes a difference.

The first reading is a description of people who have quite frankly turned their back on God, which really is what Jeremiah experienced throughout much of his time as a prophet. He spoke the truth but rarely did people listen. He spoke the truth but often it came at high cost to him, like being thrown into the bottom of a cistern. And these people quite frankly have forgotten what was first given to them as a tremendous gift.

The Word of the Lord says, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, following me in the desert in a land unsown.” But they don’t remember. They abandon the devotion of their youth. The leaders won’t listen to Jeremiah and ultimately the community and Jeremiah wind up in two different places in exile.

Jesus mentions the same quality in today’s gospel. There’s a bit of sarcasm, shall we say, with Jesus. You have eyes but you do not see, you have ears but you do not hear. Gross is the people. And in another place he says, “I speak in parables lest they hear my words and believe them and turn back to me.”

What about us? Because God rolls out for us a great gift. We are the ones who are blessed to see, to hear, to experience deep inside the effects of God’s Word. We are the ones that Jesus shares the insights of the kingdom with. We are the ones that Jesus shows the path to eternal life for he is the way.

But just like the people of Jerusalem who lost the devotion of their youth, so too can we. The enthusiasm perhaps when we first became a believer over time has worn off. It’s become ordinary. And think of the ways in which we get extraordinary insight from God himself. We come to Mass. We’ve done it, many of you, I don’t even know how many times.

But do we really appreciate what’s happening here? Do we really see with our eyes that Jesus becomes fully present in the Eucharist? Do we really hear with our ears the Word of God that gets proclaimed at every Mass? Let us not be like the people who have gross hearts, who don’t see and don’t hear. Let us be the ones who are

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