Being Seen

Recently I've been fixated on the idea of being seen.

I know that there is a desire in human nature to be seen, a longing in every human heart to be known, to be understood, to be loved. But what does it really mean to be seen, beyond the visual sensation?  

True vision sees your truest and best self, beyond your faults, as God created you. True vision sees beyond fault - beyond sin, shame, or insecurity. It does not deny that your faults exist, nor that they are a integral part of developing your person. But, it brings out the goodness in you. For example, I've noticed that when you truly love or admire someone you speak about them in a way that brings out the best in them. For instance, some of my friends are huge Kobe Bryant fans. They rave about his incredible agility, his unrelenting motivation, his unbelievable shots. They would never start a conversation about Kobe with his tendency to hog the ball because they are too caught up in his superior basketball swag. While I wouldn't say they fully "see" Kobe, their fascination with him fosters an admiration necessary for true vision. When you truly “see” someone you are so caught up in the goodness of someone that their faults seem insignificant.

When you truly see someones goodness, you desire for them to attain their goodness more fully.When my dad looks at me, sometimes he pauses and smiles. At that moment, I know he’s “seeing” me. He sees the best of me and desires that best for me. He wants for me to be the best me I can be. He “sees” and desires for me to be “the best version of myself” as Matthew Kelly puts it. In the sentiment of JPII, a "seer" would want you to “Become who you are.” In other words someone who sees yo desires you to embrace the totality of the greatness for which you were created, to assume the unblemishedness of your true self, untained by sin, made for heaven- as St. Araneaus says – "man fully alive."  Attainment of your truest self is the deepest desire of the one who sees you.

I would liken this idea of seeing someone to Aristotle's idea of true friendship. Aristotle writes that true friends desire happiness for each other. They are not friendships of utility, desired for usefulness or personal gain; they are not friendships of pleasure, desired for one's own enjoyment, for laughs or to make you feel good about yourself. Friendship proper, however, is characterized by mutual love and selflessness, authentic desire that the other would attain the end for which they were made, happiness. For Aristotle, humanity's happiness is the proper used of reason in pursuit of virtue, pursuing your best self. And if Aristotle had been a 21st century Christian, I bet he's liken his life of happiness to St. Arraneus' "man fully alive," Matthew Kelly's "best version of yourself," and JPII's "who you are." The desire of the friend who truly loves you is for yo to be fully happy, fully alive, fully yourself.

That’s why I think to see someone is one of the deepest forms of intimacy possible for two human people. It is to see them as God sees them, to gaze on them with the eyes of God. Love enables you to see the invaluable uniqueness of a person, the wondrous way that person has been created, and the irrepeatable way that person brings the image of God into the world. And upon encountering that person in the beauty they are created, one cannot help but desire for them to embrace this image of God within them more fully. 

God is the perfect "seer."  He’s the only one who fully totally knows who you were created to be... because duh he created you!  For he “formed you in the womb,” and “before you were born he consecrated you.” He brought you to life and breathed his precious Spirit and life into you. He knows everything about you, and sees right through you. And you best believe that His most burning desire is your embrace of who he made you to be, ultimately union with him.

It think it is a very divine act, then, to don the eyes of God. Beg the Holy Spirit for the gaze of the Father so that you can “see” people.  For this type of vision, I think has a clearer view of reality. “Seeing” someone is dually a fruit of loving someone and further motivation to love someone.  So in our constant effort to love as Christ did on this earth, let us pause and see the beauty of the creation of God that is all of those around us. “See” your friends and classmates, “see” the cashier at the grocery store, "see" the man begging for change, “see” your mother and your father. See them and desire them to live into their best self, their happiness, their fullest life.  Feast your eyes on the magnificence of God in one another. Pray for the Kingdom of Heaven to crash down on earth.