“Watch out for your blind spots”

My wife recently attended a 4-Day Christian ACTS retreat. The retreats are designed to help participants grow into a deeper relationship with God and encourage the Church community of faith to become more vibrant.

The Gospel reading at the closing celebration Mass was taken from Luke 16:19-31; when Jesus tells the Pharisees a parable comparing two men; a rich man who dressed in fine linen and dined sumptuously every day; and a poor man who lay outside the rich man’s door, hoping to just get a scrap of the food that fell from his table. Both men died and Jesus says that the poor man was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man fell to the netherworld and a life of everlasting torment.

During the homily, the priest remembered that when he was a young man learning how to drive his father would always remind him to “look out for your blind spots“. These were the spots around the car that could not be seen by the mirrors. His father taught him the importance of being aware of those blind spots so he could avoid accidents and potential tragedies.

The priest went on to say that retreats are valuable because they provide us with an opportunity to stop, evaluate our life, check for blind spots and then make the necessary corrections to adjust our life so that we avoid potential disaster and tragedy.

Luke’s Gospel story did not specifically say that the poor man was especially good or that the rich man was evil and treated the poor man badly. It could be that the rich man felt that he was living a righteous life and felt pride that he was a well-liked and respected member of his community.

But the rich man had a blind spot – he could not see the need right outside his door – or understand why it was any of his concern. He could not see what he could not see – and it ended up in tragedy for him.

That is why it is a good exercise for us to look at ourselves through other people’s eyes every now and then. To step back and take an objective look at how we are perceived by those around us who are able to clearly see our blind spots. Even more important is to ask ourselves how our actions as well as our inactions would be seen in the eyes of God.

If the rich man in the Gospel story had done this, maybe he would have noticed those blind spots in his life that were leading him to disaster – and made the necessary corrections in his life that would have carried him to bosom of Abraham.