May I ask you a question? When did you see your reflection in the mirror last time? Now let me tell you the story of a Carmelite nun who entered the convent years ago when they weren’t allowed to have a mirror. As you know the nuns of this order don’t leave their convent at all. They devote their time to prayer, silence and penance. However after some forty years the rules were changed and the nuns were allowed to have mirrors. This is what she said: “When I saw my reflection in the mirror first time after 40 years I fainted.”
Ladies and Gentlemen! There are three pairs of eyes who see my life. There is my life: As I see it. As others see it. As God sees it. However each pair of eyes sees something different.
I don’t want to talk about the two first pairs of eyes because what I see when I look at my life of what other people see when the look at me will never exhaust the full mystery of the person standing in front of you right now. Exactly the same can be said about each one of you here in this church tonight and what can be said about each single person walking this planet. What we see is just making us hungry to discover what God sees in us.
In the Gospel of St John we have Jesus and Martha looking at the grave of Lazarus. They look at the same thing but they see different things. Martha sees the decaying body while Jesus sees the new life just about to explode. The mistake Martha made was that she was looking at her brother instead looking into Jesus eyes. Now let me make some confession. Some people have been asking me why I close my eyes when I hear confessions. I can tell you it is not because I fall asleep out of boredom but it is my way of asking Jesus to look at the person in front of me through his eyes. I want to see in the person what Jesus sees. In Jesus’ eyes we can always see truth; the truth about the person and the truth about God’s mercy.
Some years ago I came across this comment written by Saint Faustina who spread the Message of Divine mercy. She was granted some great visions of Our Lord, one of those visions is reflected in what is known as Divine Mercy Image. This is what struck me in her comment: “The eyes of Jesus in this painting are like his eyes looking at the earth from the cross.” I can’t show you the image today as we have covered all the pictures and statues in our church but I can tell you that one of my prayers is looking into the eyes of Our Dear Lord in Divine Mercy Image. I beg him constantly for his Holy Spirit to enable me to look at you and myself through his merciful eyes.
That’s why I have never fainted doing confessions. But Jesus did faint on the cross on Good Friday when looking at the sins of the world, mine and your sins. The faint became his death but since his Resurrection the power of life which exploded in his tomb has been at work in this world of ours. What Ezekiel prophesised about in our First Reading when he talked about grave being open, not just graves at the cemeteries but the graves of human sins, this prophesy happens but we need Jesus eyes to see it, to see it in other people lives and in our lives as well.
Ladies and Gentlemen! There are three pairs of eyes who see my life. There is my life: As I see it. As others see it. As God sees it. However each pair of eyes sees something different.
I don’t want to talk about the two first pairs of eyes because what I see when I look at my life of what other people see when the look at me will never exhaust the full mystery of the person standing in front of you right now. Exactly the same can be said about each one of you here in this church tonight and what can be said about each single person walking this planet. What we see is just making us hungry to discover what God sees in us.
In the Gospel of St John we have Jesus and Martha looking at the grave of Lazarus. They look at the same thing but they see different things. Martha sees the decaying body while Jesus sees the new life just about to explode. The mistake Martha made was that she was looking at her brother instead looking into Jesus eyes. Now let me make some confession. Some people have been asking me why I close my eyes when I hear confessions. I can tell you it is not because I fall asleep out of boredom but it is my way of asking Jesus to look at the person in front of me through his eyes. I want to see in the person what Jesus sees. In Jesus’ eyes we can always see truth; the truth about the person and the truth about God’s mercy.
Some years ago I came across this comment written by Saint Faustina who spread the Message of Divine mercy. She was granted some great visions of Our Lord, one of those visions is reflected in what is known as Divine Mercy Image. This is what struck me in her comment: “The eyes of Jesus in this painting are like his eyes looking at the earth from the cross.” I can’t show you the image today as we have covered all the pictures and statues in our church but I can tell you that one of my prayers is looking into the eyes of Our Dear Lord in Divine Mercy Image. I beg him constantly for his Holy Spirit to enable me to look at you and myself through his merciful eyes.
That’s why I have never fainted doing confessions. But Jesus did faint on the cross on Good Friday when looking at the sins of the world, mine and your sins. The faint became his death but since his Resurrection the power of life which exploded in his tomb has been at work in this world of ours. What Ezekiel prophesised about in our First Reading when he talked about grave being open, not just graves at the cemeteries but the graves of human sins, this prophesy happens but we need Jesus eyes to see it, to see it in other people lives and in our lives as well.
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