Gazing at the Lord Jesus

Dear friends,

Greetings!

Today is the Feast of the Visitation. 

Today I would like to share with you on "Gazing on the Lord." Gazing is different from glancing. Gazing is a steady and more intent look, while a glance is a hurried look. In the Bible we read quite a lot about gazing. Gazing has to do with not only our eyes, but more importantly, our mind, and even our spirit. 

What happens when we gaze? We look at something intently, and so allow a reflection and more importantly, an impression of the same object to be formed upon our minds. If we gaze upon good things, that has its effects, if we gaze upon bad things, that has its effects too. Our minds are indeed, are constantly "looking at" or considering or "seeing" something. 

Just think of the human eye - can the eye be without sight? It is constanly looking at or seeing something. The Lord tells us, "The lamp of the body is the eye." (Luke 11:34) The eye fills our body with light. We all know that! What a terrible thing blindness is! Everything is dark for those who are blind. Now let us apply this spiritually, which means applying what is the passing world to the reality of the permanent world, which is the spiritual world - we know that the spiritual world remains whereas the external world passes.

 What happens when we gaze at the Lord? The Bible tells us that "Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed." (Psalm 34:5) In other words, when we gaze on the Lord, either in the tabernacle, or in the Unveiled Host or Monstrance, or upon the Face of Jesus our Lord in the Living Word, again, not a hurried look or a glance, but a more constant, steady look on the Face of Jesus, an impression of that Divine Face is formed upon our minds. 

Let us, dear brothers and sisters, allow ourselves to be transformed by this Divine Gaze, with which Jesus our Lord wants to gaze at us. Let us bring ourselves before His Presence. Let us sit before Him at His feet. Let us take a few moments to allow Him to gaze upon us and let us allow His gaze, full of tenderness and compassion, to melt away all our hardness of heart, all the crusts of evil which may have formed; may the Lord bless us and heal us! 

Mary, our Mother, you who look upon the Lord constantly and steadily with an unwavering gaze, and so are truly the "Woman clothed with the Sun" and with "the moon under your feet", may we ask you to intercede for us all, and even, visit us today, your poor children who wander in this valley of tears! After the brief period of our exile, show us the Fruit of Your Womb, Jesus! Amen.