“The eye is the lamp of the body”. The beginning of today’s Gospel (Matthew 6: 22–23) focuses on the old physics that believed that the eye has light in it and this light emerges from it in order to see. I borrow this old physical concept to understand the statement of the Lord: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,your whole body will be full of light”. This means that if you see through the divine light in you, your whole entity would be enlightened and you would see that the other person is a divine creature even if you analyzed his behaviors and realized that they were bad. If you behaved divinely, you would let light descend on the other; you would baptize him through light and go beyond what annoys you in him.
You cannot, of course, close your eyes if you were sure that the other carries any evil, lying, exploitation, or a will of exploitation or a desire to humiliate you, surround you or destroy a benefit of yours. Know that you should see the reality and not be stupid or idiot. Knowing the reality of the other is a condition for you not to be, while dealing with each other, the oppressor or the oppressed.
However, the first encounter between you and the other should be based on good supposition in order not to be unjust; and if cooperation showed that the other has any evil or bad intention, then you would behave according to what was revealed to you. Nevertheless, you begin with good supposition.
Yes, there are people with innocent natures that could quickly lose and be fooled by others. The person that has this innocent nature must learn wisdom according to what the Lord said: “Be as shrewd as snakes”. However, this doesn’t imply constant caution, because this constant caution makes you unable to meet with people and deal with them, and this way you will also lose. The basis is to be able to combine between good supposition and shrewdness.
On the other hand, continuous bad supposition would make you see all people as bad people or enemies, and you would then need a lot of effort to change into the pure vision that goes along with the love that you freely give. Some people find it hard to understand others and to differentiate; they are worried from dealing with people so they run away from them especially if they expected problems or complications. However, confrontation is a must for healthy encountering to be achieved.
Things get more complicated in marital relationships. Here, bad supposition makes you drown in horrible imaginations. Here, you must understand the nature of your partner in the marital life, for if the other partner had a fun nature or was open minded and smiled for a person from the opposite sex, do not let bad supposition enter you in order not to go into this sick state in which you keep eye on the other partner in every motion and every word he or she says. A person might be pure or smooth with others so sometimes warmth would appear in his conversation with the other sex. We cannot stay enclosed and dry in our humanly behavior in order for the home not to be destroyed. You cannot be in constant monitoring over your wife and vice versa. You might have a state of spiritual or intellectual sympathy towards a woman and your wife might not be on the same level of this sympathy. Do not put your woman in a cage! Do not put your man in a cage! This would destroy the marital relationship. Nothing can kill the familial life more than jealousy.
Also, do not constantly doubt your son or daughter; believe them when they tell you where they were until the contrary is proved. Do not put your children in a cage for them not to choke and see that you are a dictator. You are their shepherd and not a police officer; taking care of them comes from love and trust.
When you show trust towards people that you deal with in your home or in your work, such as trusting your employees, you would make them in a state of peace and calmness and strengthen their personality and increase their love. Then, they would return your trust with trust also. Life is being together.
Trust is the basis. When the Lord loved us in Christ, he knew our ability to overcome our tiredness and sins. When people trust you because of your good supposition towards them, they would be getting closer to trusting God.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “سوء الظن” –Raiati no28- 10.07.2005
