“Where there is great love there are always miracles,” he said at length. “One might almost say that an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love. I do not see you as you really are, Joseph; I see you through my affection for you. The Miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.” –Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
There are many passages from this book that made an impression on me. There is much talk everywhere of peace and unity and coming together. Forgive me, but I see little hope of that in the big sphere, but I have seen it happen in my neighborhood, one person at a time choosing to see neighbors with warmth. I am a judgmental person by nature, but find that judgment melts pretty quickly into compassion as I choose to really see a person. I believe Jesus Christ enables us to do this. Some of my best friends are those whom I have judged harshly at the beginning.
I often have something to learn from one who challenges my neatly rowed ideas.
C.S. Lewis talks about a First Friend, one with whom you agree on everything, and a Second Friend, with whom you do not. My “Second Friends” are the ones who helped me know myself better, helped me grow in my ideas, and served me a needed dose of compassion for my differences with them.
“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.” I trust in this.