Aware

⁴⁶They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. ⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁸Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” ⁴⁹Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” ⁵⁰So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. ⁵¹Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” ⁵²Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
                                                                                                       - Mark 10:46-52

I’ve never thought of awareness as a spiritual discipline, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. One of my favorite theologians, Brian Bantum, defines sin as the obfuscation of sight. In other words, he says, we cannot see and we do not know that we are blind. I find this definition extraordinarily helpful. It helps me understand how Christians could have been complicit in some of the gravest evils in history: the violent taking of land, chattel slavery, oppression of women, and the like. It’s not that these people were essentially evil, but that they were blind.

            Thinking of awareness as a spiritual discipline, then, can do some serious work for us. We might ask ourselves: Who am I not aware of? Whose voices am I not listening to? Whose pain and suffering am I not seeing? Am I complicit in the oppression of others? Am I close to those who are calling out and resisting injustice?

            These are difficult questions. They require patience and love, both of ourselves and others. I pray that we will have the courage to ask them, and I pray that as we do we are drawn into close proximity to our Creator who graciously grants sight to the blind.

~ Chris Agoranos