I See You

“You, Lord, are blessed for having made me.” - St Clare of Assisi, who throughout her life went against the grains of society and made her own way.

We wake up each morning, and go about our lives. We work, we go to school, we clean, we cook, we study; and yet while we go through our day, and pass by others who go through their own, they do not know our experience, and we do not know theirs. And there are days of goodness, and there are days of badness, where our minds can’t help but think about all the ways of imperfection in us, of all the ways we’ve screwed up, of all the ways we’re unworthy. If you’re like me, in those times I’ve often found myself asking God questions, but one in particular.

Do you see me?

And yet the problems that I face in the grand scheme of it all are nothing as compared to others. I look around our society and see people fighting over control of other’s bodies, and others trying to define which love is the right love. I can imagine that there are many women and members of the LGBTQ community who have asked that same question I have.

Do you see me?

And yet life goes on, and people continue to fail to see the beauty of each person, and the effects the desires of power have. Our mission here is to respect others, not control them. Thinking differently, being different, is what makes us unique. It is what makes all thing beautiful, and yet this beauty gets lost in people’s need to control, to be in power. When will we realize what this does to us?

Clare of Assisi experienced something like this all throughout her life. Being part of a noble family, she wanted to give that up for the life she was called to. In her times, that was crazy. You don’t give up a good life. And yet, despite her family’s influence, she broke free. And even then when she broke free to follow Francis of Assisi, the church wanted to control her, to tell her how to live her life. Doesn’t that sound familiar to the world we’re living in? But she still pushed on, and through all the difficulties, even though it was at the end of her life, her way of life was finally approved.

God saw her. And God sees you too.

It is impossible for me to believe in a God that doesn’t love you for who you were made to be. It is impossible for me to believe in a God that would be ok with men controlling women’s bodies. To persecuted women and to LGBTQ communities, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that our society doesn’t let you show the beauty you have been made with. I’m sorry that there are times that you don’t feel seen. But God is still present in all of it. Remember that just as Clare said, God is blessed to have made you, because you are part of a created body that makes the world more beautiful with your presence.

I think we all need to have that spirit of Clare, that undying passion to persevere in what we believe in, that even in the darkest of skies we can bring light, and to show others that beauty in which we were created with, for if you do this the one who formed you will redeem you.

I promise you that God sees you, even though it doesn’t seem like it. And know that I see you, and I will love you, always