“Here below God is hidden from our view; we can see Him only with the eyes of faith: how great shall be our happiness when the veil shall be raised, and we shall be permitted to behold God face to face!” (Saint Alphonsus).
My mother had a mole on her face. It started as a small brownish mark on her skin – obviously brought on by sun exposure. And then – over a period of years – that mole continued to grow larger.
Because of where it was positioned on her face, my mother could not see what the mole looked like, and was not really very fussed about it at all. However, because we have been indoctrinated (in a good way) in the warning signs of skin cancers, we – as her children – were very conscious that our mother should have a doctor attend to the mole on her face in case it needed to be extracted.
Eventually – after much nagging – my mother was convinced to see a skin specialist about that mole on her face. And then – right then and there in the doctor’s office, the problematic mole was removed (not cancerous, thank God) and life went on with very little recovery at all for a procedure that had been put off for so long…
And I have been reflecting on my mother’s face today as I have been reflecting on the Face of God.
You see, it was because I loved my mother that I was very familiar with the way that her face looked. When a baby zebra is born, its mother walks around it continuously for a period of time to ensure that it can memorise its mother’s stripes. In this way, the baby zebra is less likely to become confused in the herd and will most likely be able to find its own mother and therefore obtain food and protection until it is mature enough to fend for itself in the herd. And in a way, my mother’s face is the same to me. You see, I have been watching that face since I was first born. I know the marks and lines and patches, and when her face started to change, I saw the change in it – even before she did.
And it occurs to me today that God is also watching my face with His Holy Face. He has studied it as He formed it. He has studied it as my own free will corrupted it. He can see the marks and ageing and the wearing down of my face and my body and my soul.
And it also occurs to me that I shall be required to look into the Holy Face of my God on the day of my judgement… Saint Alphonsus said in one of his sermons, “But in this life we do not see God as he really is: we see Him, as it were, in the dark. ‘We see now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face’ (1 Cor. 13:12). Here below God is hidden from our view; we can see Him only with the eyes of faith: how great shall be our happiness when the veil shall be raised, and we shall be permitted to behold God face to face! We shall then see His beauty, His greatness, His perfection, His amiableness, and His immense love for our souls.”
And today, as I reflect on the beloved face of my mother, I think also of my God’s Face, and it occurs to me that I have a great deal to do in order to prepare myself for that vision… A great deal indeed…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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