Posted on 10/23/2019 3:03:28 PM PDT by Salvation
At a past parish gathering there was a demonstration of different dance styles. One of our young adults, Lola, is a student of classical and ballroom dance. She, along with her dance partner, danced a modest tango in a most elegant way.
What was most fascinating to me was that Lola kept her eyes shut during the entire dance; I wondered how it was even possible to dance with closed eyes. So I asked her why she did that. Lola responded that it was easier for her to dance that way; it was less distracting. “I close my eyes so that I can better follow his lead.” She says that this is common in this form of dance.
All this made perfect sense to me the moment she said it. Indeed, all of us must learn this lesson in our walk, our dance, with God. Scripture says,
We, too, must learn to dance with our eyes shut to the world’s disruptions and demands lest they distract us from the Lord’s lead. Jesus said, You must follow me (Jn 21:22). Whoever serves me must follow me (Jn 12:26). I know my sheep, and they follow me (Jn 10:27).
So easily do our eyes become mesmerized by the flickering and distracting lights of the world. Soon enough, in the dance of faith, we get out of synch with the Lord; we stumble or lose our way. Better to close our eyes through careful custody of them and listen to the Lord, feeling His subtle moves and promptings. Scripture says, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Rom 10:17).
Beware; we are very visual creatures, but our eyes are easily deceived and too easily drawn to what is fast and flickering. Faith comes through quiet hearing, patient listening, and experience of the Lord’s subtle moves and promptings. Blinded by the world’s flickering lights we fall in the dance of God’s love.
Cardinal Robert Sarah has made some important observations about the visual noise of our culture. The following is an excerpt from his book, The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise:
For some years now there has been a constant onslaught of images, lights and colors that blind man. His interior dwelling is violated by the unhealthy, provocative images of pornography, bestial violence, and all sorts of worldly obscenities that assault purity of heart and infiltrate through the door of sight.
The faculty of sight, which ought to see and contemplate the essential things, is turned aside to what is artificial … In the cities that shine with a thousand lights, our eyes no longer find restful areas of darkness.
… Our eyes are forced to look at a sort of ongoing spectacle. The dictatorship of the image, which plunges our attention into a perpetual whirlpool, detests silence. Man feels obliged to see ever new realities that give him an appetite to own things; but his eyes are red, haggard, and sick …. He is riveted to ephemeral things, farther and farther away from what is essential.
Our eyes are sick, intoxicated, they can no longer close. The tyranny of the image, forces man to renounce the silence of the eyes. Humanity itself has returned to the sad prophecy of Isaiah, which was repeated by Jesus: “Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand… For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing and their eyes they have closed to me, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.” (Matthew 13:13, 15).
[The Power of Silence pp. 43-46]
There is great wisdom in Cardinal Sarah’s Book. I concur with Michael O’Brien, who commented on the Cardinal’s book in this way: It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this profound, uniquely beautiful book. Yes, in an audibly and visually noisy world, we must regain our reverence for and experience of silence.
Lola is right. Regarding the dance, she said, “I close my eyes so that I can better follow his lead.”
For us who would seek the Lord and take up the dance of love, we too must say, “I close my eyes so that I can better follow his lead.” The “night” of the senses leads to an inner illumination and unity with the Lord, who says, “Follow me.”
Monsignor Pope Ping!
Excellent commentary.
However it has a few confusing passages.
Beware; we are very visual creatures, but our eyes are easily deceived and too easily drawn to what is fast and flickering. Faith comes through quiet hearing, patient listening, and experience of the Lord’s subtle moves and promptings.
(The above part is very true)
Blinded by the world’s flickering lights we fall in the dance of God’s love.
(This sentence is contradictory. Blinded by the flicker of lights it puts us into a trance where we are fooled into thinking we are dancing with God’s Love. But it is an external trance, not an internal one.)
Excellent commentary.
However it has a few confusing passages.
Beware; we are very visual creatures, but our eyes are easily deceived and too easily drawn to what is fast and flickering. Faith comes through quiet hearing, patient listening, and experience of the Lord’s subtle moves and promptings.
(The above part is very true)
Blinded by the world’s flickering lights we fall in the dance of God’s love.
(This sentence is contradictory. Blinded by the flicker of lights it puts us into a trance where we are fooled into thinking we are dancing with God’s Love. But it is an external trance, not an internal one.)
Sorry for the duplicate post. The FR delay caused me to think I had missed the post button.
maybe a comma would help:
Blinded by the world’s flickering lights we fall in the dance of God’s love.
OR
Blinded by the world’s flickering lights, we fall in the dance of God’s love.
I.e. when we are blinded by the world’s flickering lights, we fall/fail in the dance of God’s love.
I used to be mortified when my husband would “listen” to a homily by putting his head down and closing his eyes ... so all he did was HEAR it. Of course, that is what we should do, but it looks disrespectful to the speaker.
Good stuff.
What pops into my mind here is-— Passion.
Passion between two lovers who truly love and become One.
Passion that trusts totally and surrenders all.
The Passion of Christ.
I agree. It is merely the confusing punctuation and wording.
I’m frequently guilty of that myself.
In the workshops and lectures on prayer I present, we examine the neuroscience supporting eyes closed.
When the eyes are open, about 90% of the sensory input through the thalamus that does the priority sort for focus comes through the eyes and optic nerve. When our eyes open and we pray, it is difficult to change to increase the frequency of our consciousness. It locks us in where we are at.
Part of the demonstration I perform with volunteers is to have them close their eyes, say a silent prayer to themselves, and experience the change in perception of reality when they open their eyes after the prayer. It’s like changing channels on a tv.
We then test the procedure by having the same person close their eyes, think of an emotionally painful event, and wheeln they open their eyes the perception of reality is changed to a lower perspective.
We can tune our consciousness frequency so low that mole hills look like mountains, or so high that mountains look like mole hills. Our perception of reality is a function of the operational frequency of consciousness from which we view it.
Closing the eyes is necessary to let go of the old so we can change to the new.
Side note... when a person is on antidepressants, the person can pray for an hour and the change is minimal. The flat affect associated with taking antidepressants inhibits the ability for consciousness to change up or down. It’s like taking the tuning knob off a radio and you only get one station.
I’m not against antidepressants as they save lives. However, they should be temporary .
When my children were young I taught them how to hypnotize our chickens merely by moving their hands while the chickens were watching.
Since their eyes are on the side of their heads, doing contralateral hand movements confuses their brains and induces trance almost immediately. The eye input controls the brain.
I’ve experimented with similar procedures in autism spectrum disorder subjects. They tend to turn their heads to the left to look at people through the right side of the right eye. Due to the optic nerve crossover wiring, this causes input to be restricted to their logical left brain.
If they to turn their head to the right and look at me, they shut down and have difficulty thinking clearly as they are hindered in right brain emotional processing.
Closed eyes allows the brain to balance and opens different operating regions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.