Think of a window on a house. You are standing outside at night, shining a flashlight on a window. You will not see inside the house, only the reflection of your own flashlight.
When you stand outside at night, and the light comes from inside the house, you can turn off your flashlight and see in. Get it?
The window is the barrier of prejudgment. Preconceived notions about Catholics will only reflect back your own "light" such as it may be. iThe brighter the flashlight you shine on the window, the less you will see.
"For now we see through a glass darkly, but then, face to face." Seems to me as though St. Paul is saying, here, that WE CANNOT KNOW EVERYTHING until that day. The flashlight of preconception is one of the barriers to sight.
Get it?
Preconceptions slices both ways,
however.
Most excellent! I haven’t seen it explained as well as you have. :-)
I also notice that you mention the light shining from within the house.
It calls to my mind St. Teresa’s “Interior Castle”.
(I am a Secular (meaning “lay” or “third order”) Carmelite.
No, No, No...When you've got a priest sticking his head out the window telling you what's inside and you go to the next window with another priest hanging out describing a different scene, you tend to think the house may be empty and these guys are making everything up...