Columnists
The All-Seeing Eye
by I.J. SinghGod, say all religions, sees all. Sometimes, His eye is merciful, other times, less so. Nothing escapes him, except what he chooses to ignore.
The eye of God is on the back of the American dollar bill, perhaps exhorting us to put the money to honest use. As ojo de Dios, it is on the twin figures of the Indians of Mexico. The Hebrew letter ayin, meaning eye, often refers to the eye of God. A massive eye of God looks down sternly from a height of 60 feet from the vaulted ceiling of St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx, in New York City. But this eye tells the story of New York.
New York City is not Middle America. But if there were to be the capital city of a united world, it would be New York City. Until air travel became more commonplace, most immigrants came by sea, and the shortest line between Old Europe and the New World ended at New York City.
Waves of immigrants have sought new lives here. As immigrants constructed communities, they also built houses of worship. The early immigrants to the South Bronx were Irish Catholic; they founded St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church. They were mostly blue-eyed, so they colored God's eye sky blue.
Times changed. As the Irish prospered in the New World, they moved to suburbia, where the living was easier and families happier. When they abandoned the Bronx, they left behind the huge cathedrals and churches they had built. By 1976, the pews of St. Jerome were empty on Sundays. New immigrants -- poorer, recent arrivals, striving for a foothold in the new land - replaced the Irish. By 2000, the church was full again, but the new worshippers were mostly Mexicans. When the pastor, a holdover from old times, asked a parishioner what color were God's eyes, her answer was simple, "Color café."
So, at St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church, God's eye was painted brown in 2005, like the eyes of those who come to worship Him. There were no Irish left to object. I don't know if God created man in His own image, certainly man seems to have created God in his. Will the eye of God blink at the enormity of our sins, or playfully wink to let us be?
Speaking of God, Sikhs say: "roop rung ar rekh bhekh kou kaih na sakat keh"; in essence, meaning - "None can describe His physical attributes".