{"id":4425,"date":"2026-09-28T11:01:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ametur-msc.org\/website\/?p=4425"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:19:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:19:06","slug":"seeing-through-the-eyes-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ametur-msc.org\/website\/seeing-through-the-eyes-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing through the eyes of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leo XIV\u2019s keys to a more humane society. During his Apostolic Journey to Spain in June this year, Leo XIV addressed public authorities, young people, volunteers, prisoners, migrants and Christian communities.<\/em> Amid this diversity, a common message emerges: to seek the truth without turning it into a weapon of polarisation, to recognise the dignity of every person, and to translate God\u2019s love into encounter, service and hope<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

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The best summary of Leo XIV\u2019s addresses can be found in the motto of the journey: \u2018Lift up your eyes\u2019 (Jn 4:35). He also used this message in the catechesis that followed his Apostolic Journey to Spain. In it, he explained that Jesus teaches us to discover in people \u2018the desire for life, for truth, for fulfilment\u2019. \u2018Lifting up our eyes\u2019 does not mean turning away from problems, but looking at them differently. It means no longer seeing only figures, labels, adversaries or difficulties, but recognising faces, stories and possibilities. The Pope expresses it in a simple formula: looking at our neighbour and at the world \u2018through the eyes of God\u2019, that is, \u2018with love, respect and compassion\u2019. Perhaps it is more vivid to think of seeing through the eyes of Christ, recalling the Gospel passages in which he notices the blind man (Mk 10:46) and the woman (Mt 9:20) by the roadside, the widow making her offering in the Temple (Mk 12:42), the children as he enters Jerusalem (Mt 19:14), and the sick man at the pool of Bethesda (Jn 5:5)\u2026<\/p>\n

Seeing the person. <\/strong><\/span>
\nThe central thread running through the Pope\u2019s addresses is the defence of human dignity. Leo XIV reminds us that behind every political, economic or social decision are real people. In the National Parlament, he posed a question that applies to every kind of social, business or political responsibility\u2026 and to every moment of daily life: what place does the human person occupy in our decisions?<\/p>\n

This principle prevents anyone from being reduced to a figure, a case file, their place of origin or a past mistake. In the port of Arguinegu\u00edn, he spoke of wounded lives \u2018stripped of almost everything, but never of their dignity\u2019. And at Brians 1 Prison, he offered the inmates one of the most significant phrases of the journey: \u2018God loves you as you are, but dreams of a better you!\u2019<\/p>\n

These messages point towards acceptance and a call to inner change. What a person has done, what they have suffered or their present situation does not define them. God\u2019s love does not deny responsibility or the need to make amends for the harm caused, but it opens up the possibility of beginning again. We too can ask ourselves whether we give others that opportunity or lock them into a label: \u2018the one who failed\u2019, \u2018the one who made a mistake\u2019, \u2018the foreigner\u2019, \u2018the prisoner\u2019 or \u2018the poor person\u2019. Seeing the person\u2014or, as the Pope said at Barcelona\u2019s Olympic Stadium, placing the \u2018person at the centre\u2019\u2014means looking at the real consequences of our decisions. In a family, a company, a Christian community or an institution, it is not enough for a measure to be effective. We must ask whom it protects, whom it leaves out and who will bear its most painful effects. Before making decisions, we must look people in the eye and recognise the face of Christ in the person before us.<\/p>\n

The reality of migrants enabled the Pope to develop another fundamental teaching. Solidarity springs from recognising human dignity and cannot stop at occasional help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Truth leads to encounter. <\/strong><\/span>
\nAnother major theme, and one of the most frequently repeated in the addresses, is the need to overcome division and polarisation. Speaking to the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Leo XIV recalled that \u2018it is not a culture of confrontation, but a culture of encounter, that generates stability and prosperity\u2019. He does not propose concealing differences or renouncing one\u2019s own convictions. He invites us to abandon the simplifications that turn the other person into a threat, and to accept that reality is more complex than our ideas.<\/p>\n

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\u2018The truth,\u2019 he says, \u2018is always greater than we are.\u2019 It cannot, therefore, become the exclusive property of one person or group. Seeking it requires us to listen, to engage in dialogue and to be willing to correct our own perspective. In a family conversation, at work or on social media, we can defend an idea clearly while respecting those who think differently. The question is not only whether we are right, but whether our words shed light and open up paths, or whether they humiliate and widen the distance between us.<\/p>\n

Encounter is not weakness: it requires patience, critical judgement and inner strength. It means accepting the complexity of reality without taking refuge in narratives that divide society into good and bad, friends and enemies.<\/p>\n

Gratuitousness, the leaven of a new life. At the meeting with volunteers held at IFEMA, Leo XIV used the Gospel image of the yeast that makes the dough rise. \u2018Christians,\u2019 he pointed out, \u2018are called to bring the leaven of gratuitousness into the world.\u2019 Faced with a culture dominated by self-interest, profit and calculation, gratuitousness introduces a different logic: doing good without constantly asking what we will receive in return.<\/p>\n

The Pope says that gratuitousness \u2018enhances the human, ethical and spiritual quality of a society\u2019. It becomes visible in those who listen, accompany or serve without seeking recognition. It is not limited to major charitable initiatives. It is also present in the small actions that sustain life: caring for someone who is ill, giving time to someone who needs to talk, quietly helping with a shared task, or offering assistance without expecting thanks.<\/p>\n

Yet Christian gratuitousness has a deeper root. During Midday Prayer in Barcelona, Leo XIV said that \u2018only those who allow themselves to be loved by God can build, together with others, the works of love\u2019. Before giving, believers learn to receive; before serving, they recognise that they are loved. Christian service is not born of a sense of superiority, but of responding with gratitude to a love that precedes us.<\/p>\n

This perspective is especially close to the spirituality of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. To contemplate the Heart of Christ is to discover a faithful, freely given and compassionate love that seeks to become visible in our relationships. Mission begins when the love we have received is transformed into presence, listening and commitment to those most in need.<\/p>\n

To welcome is also to allow ourselves to be transformed. <\/strong><\/span>
\nIn the Canary Islands, the reality of migrants enabled the Pope to develop another fundamental teaching. Solidarity springs from recognising human dignity and cannot stop at occasional help. \u2018Welcoming opens the door; integration helps people cross the threshold,\u2019 he said in La Laguna. To welcome is to respond to an urgent need; to integrate means accompanying processes, offering opportunities and enabling the person to participate actively in society.<\/p>\n

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Integration does not require those who arrive to renounce their history, culture or gifts. It means building a common space in which everyone contributes and learns. Charity, therefore, must not be paternalistic. Those who help do not have all the answers, and those who receive help are not passive subjects. Integration is a reciprocal journey: those who arrive learn to inhabit a new land, and those who receive them learn to enlarge their home without losing their identity. In the homily celebrated at the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Leo XIV said that \u2018the greatest grace is that we allow ourselves to be evangelised by those whom we assist\u2019. This phrase reverses the usual direction of aid. The poor person, the migrant, the sick person or the wounded person are not merely recipients of our generosity. Their resilience, faith and experience can teach us something we would not learn in any other way.<\/p>\n

True solidarity begins when we draw near not only to give, but also to listen and receive. A person going through a difficult situation can show us the value of what is essential, the importance of community, the strength of hope or trust in God amid uncertainty.<\/p>\n

A hope that begins today. <\/strong><\/span>
\nLeo XIV\u2019s addresses do not offer easy solutions. They acknowledge the complexity of conflicts, the harshness of poverty and the wounds borne by many people. Yet they are marked by a firm confidence: it is always possible to begin something new. And, as he said in the Cathedral of La Almudena in Madrid, \u2018to build something new, beautiful and lasting, we must be willing to tear down the walls\u2019.<\/p>\n

This hope does not consist in waiting passively for circumstances to change. It takes shape in small decisions: listening before responding, refusing to use a humiliating word, accompanying someone without expecting a reward, offering a second chance, learning someone\u2019s story before judging them, or collaborating in a welcoming initiative.<\/p>\n

To \u2018lift up our eyes\u2019 is to allow the heart to learn to see those who previously remained invisible. It is to seek the truth with humility, place the person at the centre, and allow the love received from God to become service.<\/p>\n

For those of us who live the Spirituality of the Heart, this invitation has a special resonance, a concrete way of inhabiting the world: contemplating the sentiments of Christ so that we may learn to see, love and act as he does.<\/p>\n

Javier Trapero. Spain<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Access all the addresses<\/strong> : https:\/\/conelpapa.es\/discursos-leon-xiv<\/a><\/p>\n

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Photos: Kike Rinc\u00f3n-EUROPA PRESS \/ \u00c1ngel Medina-EFE \/ Alejandro Garc\u00eda -EFE<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leo XIV\u2019s keys to a more humane society. During his Apostolic Journey to Spain in June this year, Leo XIV addressed public authorities, young people, volunteers, prisoners, migrants and Christian communities. Amid this diversity, a common message emerges: to seek the truth without turning it into a weapon of polarisation, to recognise the dignity of every person, and to translate God\u2019s love into encounter, service and hope.   The best summary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":4426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t