The Enemy in Your Eyes.

The Enemy in Your Eyes

Matthew 6:22-23;

22. The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome (full of light).

​23. But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome (of darkness). If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!

With reference to the above, I hope that this post would be a good refresher for many of us especially among the youth or it could be “new knowledge” for some young folks, who are ignorant of this fact or maybe they have never even heard of it i.e. that our eyes are the windows to our souls. How true this is and how little we do to prevent our souls from being affected.

It is obviously evident that in our world, there are many things published or done that very much appeals to our visual senses, especially through the media, the internet, and the often distracting or alluring contents accessible via mobile devices that many of us “cling” to. Not to mention the excessive amount of impure and vile content easily available at a click or touch of one’s finger. This has been building up over the past decades and has become so common around us that it seems to be “normal”; and that we have become accustom to what’s going on, even forgetting how morally wrong they are, how these are all poisoning our lives and destroying our souls, and drawing us away from our goal on earth, which is doing what we must to save our souls.

We have been influenced or lulled into forgetting that purity and holiness are precious to God and tantamount to our salvation. Anyway you know what I am referring to and I hope that you will appreciate, as I did, the following which reminds us of the consequences of our actions and may it possibly be a guide to lead us back on the right track to saving one’s soul.

Many youths are ignorant or are in denial of the need to save their souls as they are so caught up in this world to gratify their senses while they still live, not even considering life after death. It saddens me when I consider the young children who are growing up being easily influenced with what is going on around them, as parents are taking things for granted. Many need guidance so it would be good to share this little chapter below to young people you know for their awareness.

From the Young Man’s Guide Chapter 63: The enemy in Your Eyes.

1. Sight is one of the greatest blessings which God has bestowed upon His creatures. The unfortunate man who has lost this precious gift, and is on this account doomed to spend his days in perpetual darkness, can alone appreciate its value aright.

2. And yet in the case of how many persons would it not be the greatest benefit, and save them from eternal perdition, if they were to lose their bodily sight. To such individuals one might say what St. Severinus once said to a monk who implored him to ask of God the restoration of his sight. “My son”, he said, “do not trouble yourself about the eyes of your body, but rather about those of your soul.” To many young persons the saying of the prophet is applicable: “Death is come up through the windows (the eyes), it is entered into our house (the soul).” The enemy of purity enters into the human heart through the eye.

3. With what did the first sin begin in paradise? With a longing look Eve gazed at the luscious fruit which hung on the forbidden tree; that look excited a wish to taste the fruit; she yielded to the wish, gathered and ate the forbidden fruit, and gave some of it to her husband; thus was the first sin committed. And if at a period when as yet no evil concupiscence has stirred within the human breast, the eyes could work irretrievable ruin, how great, how terrible must be the result after the fall, when the enemy in our eyes works with concert with the enemy in our heart! When we see what came of a mere love for eating we may judge what a much stronger passion will do - unchaste, sensual desire kindled by bold, unguarded glances and suffered to burst into fierce flames.

3. Experience teaches that unchaste looks very frequently lead men to a terrible end. We find examples of this in Holy Scripture. The proximate cause of David’s sad fall was a bold and a sinful look; with this look, the entire edifice of his virtue crumbled away, all his good resolutions were rendered null and void, and he, the man after God's own heart, became a murderer and an adulterer. Putiphar’s wife cast unchaste glances upon Joseph, committed adultery in her heart, and would fain have sinned in act as well as in desire.

Yet should we turn to olden times in order to illustrate our meaning when our own daily observation furnishes only too many melancholy examples of the truth of our assertion?

Pay heed to the warning of Holy Scripture and say: “I have made a covenant with mine eyes that I should not look upon anything dangerous, lest death should should come up through our windows and enter into the soul.” Be on your guard against the enemy in your eyes, lest it should gain power over you, and destroy both body and soul. What biting frost is to the flowers in spring, so is an impure glance to the lily of chastity.

The numerous indecent and shameless pictures and engravings to be found in the present day in the pages of certain periodicals and illustrated journals are an open grave of innocence (as for the references made please bear in mind this was published in 1910). In cities such pictures are too often exhibited in shop windows and on billboards, or hawked about the streets. It is deeply sad to think how many souls are by this means soiled and ruined. This danger is a very great one for you, my dear young friend. Do not imitate those who say: “We are no longer children! It is quite allowable for us to see certain things, we have reached an age when we ought to be acquainted with such subjects!” Young people who talk in this fashion, are alas, no longer children of God or at least are not to be counted among His innocent children.

Remark in conclusion that those young men who boldly fixed their gaze upon persons of the opposite sex, doing this, not from mere curiosity, but with some measure of sensual desire, are either already unchaste, or will become so before very long. St. Bernard tells us that if persons of different sexes take deliberate satisfaction in gazing at one another and yet no sinful desires arise within them, it is a more wonderful thing than if a dead man were to return to life.

O Youth, preserve an undimmed eye

And keep thy heart without a stain;

The undimmed eye can look on high,

The unstained heart will peace attain.

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