The Catholic Lens
To look through a lens is to gain a certain clarity about a thing. When we attempt to see something from the stance of a certain background or a particular understanding, we are then at a capacity to interpret the thing differently. What is the reasoning to do such a thing? There could be many, really. It could be to articulate an alternative viewpoint in order to play devil’s advocate to build up a stronger case for said thing; it could be to exercise empathy, to see something from another’s point of view.
Being able to “wear” a lens to clarify something from a specific vantage point is necessary. It is especially important to be able to do so from the Catholic perspective. Consider a Catholic lens; seeing things with God’s Church as the foundation of your being and the person of Jesus Christ living within you.
The ‘Catholic lens’, I’ll call it, should rather be a part of our optical makeup, and not something that we opt to wear. It’s something we must be intentional about, something we must, in a way, ‘train’ as if it were a muscle. To do so is to readjust your perspective with purpose, with intentionality.
What’s the point of re-configuring how a man might perceive the world around him? Especially into a way that is intrinsically Catholic. I would say to do so, is to see the world how God intends us to see the world. We should want to interpret our surroundings in a Christ-centered fashion.
The caution is that to do so is to flirt with judgment and unintentional condemnation. The problem with many of our Christian brothers and sisters is that when they catch the fire of the Lord, it consumes them in a way otherwise unintended by God. Their excitement blinds their vision, disrupts true clarity, and turns into judgment and condemnation onto others. I would say that the intentions are there; wanting to share the goodness of the Lord, and help exhort fellow sinners out of their wrong doing and onto a path of light.
Viewing life with a ‘Catholic lens is’, in my opinion, how we should see the world around us. To observe things in a sacramental light can enhance our spiritual life if we allow it. We know and understand that everything we act upon in our lives either brings us closer to Christ or it doesn’t. Through the Catholic lens, we are able to hyper-focus on this concept and it permits us to willingly do the good. Not only can we do the good, but we can think in the good. Christ makes it clear that what we grant access to into our hearts and minds can be just as detrimental to our souls as can be the physical act of said thing.
The lens I imagine is one that exposes the reality of sin and destruction (which may not be so difficult to see anyway in this culture) but also the profound goodness and light that God has established in the world. It can be all too easy in our day and age to focus on the perverted good that God has given us, as our broken media all too eagerly covers the negative and evil. It would appear to be rampant. However, through the Catholic lens, we can see that at the root of the chaos and destruction is a beautifully good world that has been perverted by sin.
This lens can assist us in comprehending the potential good of things as they were created to be by the Creator. When things are evil, bad, out of order, we see that as a sign of the good that has been corrupted by sin and death. The lens will allow us to focus in on the goodness of things due to their inherent nature in that they were created to be very good, a sign of God’s sheer generosity.
A good and holy man can see the world for what it is, and what it could be, what God intends it to be. To see things in a Sacramental light is how we should strive to encounter the evil of this world. By doing so, we then become bearers of the Divine Light to shine throughout the world of God’s radiant love.
