Pope Francis visits with refugees in Sofia, Bulgaria, May 6, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“Seeing with the eyes of faith is a summons … to create conditions in which every person can feel loved, especially those who feel forgotten by God because they are forgotten by their brothers and sisters.” (Pope Francis in Bulgaria, May 2019)
During an historic trip to Bulgaria earlier this May, Pope Francis urged the country’s leaders and all the faithful to see migrants and refugees as children of God who deserve love. The pontiff also visited a refugee center in Sofia, commending the volunteers for having learned “to see with God’s own eyes.” Our Holy Father also reached out to vulnerable families there saying, “God seeks out and awaits each person with a father’s eyes.”
Pope Francis has constantly shared this message of mercy and love. You may recall the prominent Year of Mercy logo in 2016, which depicted a father carrying his weary son on his shoulders, next to the words, “Merciful like the Father.” Pope Francis chose this symbol to remind us that our Father continually carries us all on his shoulders. The image also showed the father and son sharing three eyes between them, reminding us that we are all called to see everyone with our Father’s eyes as sons and daughters of God.
Getting involved in parish social ministry provides us unique opportunities of “seeing with the eyes of faith” and “creating conditions in which every person can feel loved.” Here in Hawaii, we strive to see with the eyes of faith by “witnessing to Jesus” (Bishop Larry Silva’s motto) and following in the footsteps of St. Damien and St. Marianne of Molokai. These missionaries of mercy lived the words of wisdom spoken by an old shaman to a young missionary: “Those who can see the invisible can do the impossible.”
Social ministry provides multiple ways to encounter Christ in the most marginalized, vulnerable and forgotten — such as homeless and sick persons and families, homebound kupuna, hungry keiki, parishioners with disabilities, persons in or returning from prison, and many others in need. Outreach to others in need helps us learn to see with God’s own eyes, with new sight, the insight of merciful love that transforms shared vulnerability into hope and joy.
During a recent visit to Hale Mohalu at Leahi Hospital, we were blessed to experience a seemingly impossible transformation of blindness into joyful sight. Makia Malo is a gifted storyteller and one of the few surviving Hansen’s disease patients from Kalaupapa. Although he became blind at an early age, Makia, who is now 83, continues to inspire others through his simple gift of talking story about the days of old Hawaii. Whether speaking through his own vibrant poetic prose or singing Hawaiian and Filipino songs, Makia sees through and past his own disabilities to “care for look,” and uses the eyes of his deep faith and big heart to transform his and others’ vulnerability into joyful hope.
On our way to Easter, Bishop Larry Silva invited us to see with the eyes of faith by focusing on the beams in our own eyes and, through the sacrament of Penance, be freed to “see more clearly the light of the Risen Lord … so that we can always walk in this brilliant light that is the merciful love of Christ.”
In preparation for Pentecost, we invite all to consider getting more involved in your parish social ministry, to experience the hope of the Risen Lord and the gifts of the Holy Spirit — to see with the eyes of faith, the eyes of our merciful Father, the eyes that “care for look” with the vulnerable, the eyes of those who can see the invisible and thus can do the impossible.
For more opportunities to see with the eyes of faith so that others feel loved and not forgotten, please visit our website, www.officeforsocialministry.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
