10 May 2020. 5th Sunday Easter. Cycle A-2020. Acts 6:1-7 + 1Pt 2:4-9 + Jn 14:1-12

In his book, “One Mountain, Many Paths,”[i] psychologist Dr. Patrick Swift calls for tolerance towards other faiths. One faith can be as wrong as the other, he wrote, citing the overused story of five blind men touching an elephant, each touching a different part of the beast. Since none of them had seen or touched the whole animal, they perceived differently how the beast looked like.  

The allegory would hold true if each of the blind men would, like ideologues, explore only the parts that affirm their a priori concept of an elephant. But, even then, a bystander who was not blind saw how each of the blind men was clutching stubbornly to his own part of the animal, defending his turf tenaciously from intrusion by the other blind men. He yelled at them the detailed description of the whole elephant.  Blind men, here is an authoritative revelation from one who sees the elephant in toto.

Students go to college to open their eyes wider. Some, however, leave college blinder than ever. Their diplomas cover what their professors do not want them to see and filter what their indoctrinators want them to believe. The more “learned” they acclaimed, the blinder they became.

Some “learned” defy the eyes of logic to imagine their “truth.” Arguing in fallacies, they propagate their “truth.” According to evolution that many blindly believed, a body tissue left unused for a long time atrophies to become vestigial. Even if this theory is false, Jesus will see to it that “those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind” (Jn 9:39). Shrank eyes could see the flea on the elephant, but miss the elephant itself. VSS

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[i] Dr. Patrick Swift, One Mountain, Many Paths Common Sense for the Spiritual Traveler, (Double Eagle Press LLC, 2007).