Everything about our lives is a gift from God, including our own senses. One way to examine the state of our soul is to reflect on how we have used those senses and whether we have room for improvement.
Have we used our senses to glorify God?
Or have our senses led us astray?
St. Francis Borgia provides a guided reflection in his Spiritual Works. He begins with the eyes.
God has given me eyes that I may recognize His perfections in creatures and that all I see may draw me to love and glorify my Creator. But I have made use of these eyes to draw His enemies into my soul and I have used those creatures even against the Being who had given them to me.
Very often it is through our eyes that we sin and go against God’s commandments. This is why we need to guard our eyes and use them properly, knowing our own weaknesses and what will lead us away from God.
The next sense St. Francis focuses on is the sense of smell.
He has given me the sense of smell that I may enjoy the perfume of flowers that I may glorify Him in them and like the Spouse in the Canticle to run after the odor of His perfumes.
How often do we simply enjoy the beautiful smells of the earth?
After smell is the sense of hearing.
He has given me ears that I may hear the voice of the Spouse and that my soul may be comforted but I have closed them to His holy inspirations to open them to slander.
Do we make time in our lives to listen to God? Or do we listen too much to our friends and let them sway our beliefs?
He continues similarly with taste and touch, and concludes his meditation with a short prayer, asking God for help to glorify him with our senses.
O my God, my refuge and my hope, from your goodness alone do I expect my help and my cure. Make my senses submissive to your holy will that they may become instruments of your glory. Amen
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