12 June 1992
Seville, Spain

My dear Sisters,

When I was a young boy, there was a popular song whose opening line was, "My face is my fortune." While it was a popular song, not everyone could sing that song with sincerity and conviction. Many preferred to sing it only when there was a large chorus of other voices! Within the Bible there is no such song, but there are, however, many references to the human face and to the Divine Face.

The Divine Face fascinated the people of Israel, but, of course, it inspired awe and even fear. Only by way of exception did God allow His friend, Moses, to see His face. "Thus," writes the author of Exodus, "the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend." (Ex 33:11). One can interpret the phrase as an experience of a very intimate, personal communion with God.

The same must be said of the experience of Elijah, as described in today's first reading. The Lord was present, not in the strong wind nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the gentle breeze, and Elijah "hid his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the the entrance of the cave." (1 Kgs 19:13). "My face is my fortune." Yes, hopefully it will be some day, because as St. Paul assures us, we will find our supreme happiness in seeing God, not as now in a somewhat obscure and confused way, but we will see Him "face to face." Meantime we move along the way of pilgrimage and are subject to change of experience and also to change of mood. Where do we normally register our change of mood more than in the expressions on our faces?

If a person is not telling the truth, we say that he or she cannot look us in the face, while, when we are assured that we are telling the truth, we say, "I can look anyone in the face and say what I am saying." Perhaps St. Vincent had that image in his mind when he said that to act with simplicity is to act with God alone in view.

In this life our faces sometimes reflect the face of God, and sometimes they do not. In the faces of the poor we can see the face of Christ on the cross. When we ourselves suffer personally, we can pray with a new sincerity the prayer of the psalmist, "Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress." (Ps 102:3). Our faces in moments of joy will express the serenity of Christ. "Let your face shed its light upon us," (Ps 67:2) prayed the Psalmist. When through instructing others or comforting the sick and the weak, we draw close to them, we are letting the light of God's face shine on them.

The light of God's face does not shine through ours, when we manifest a cold and distant attitude to others. We may feel, and rightly so, that others have wronged us, or perhaps we feel irritated or annoyed by them. Then our sentiments express themselves in our faces. At times we may be justified in showing displeasure, but anger and sadness are emotions that must be carefully controlled. It is all too easy to allow our emotions to usurp the place of reason and of our nobler Christian sentiments.

When we pray, we are in a certain sense trying within the limits of our human condition to see God face to face. All prayer is an expression of faith, and in this life it is by faith that we see God. To pray is to turn our faces towards the face of God. In prayer we not only try to look on the face of Christ, as we have come to know Him in the pages of the New Testament, but we expose ourselves to Him so that He may change our hearts. We are privileged as Christians when we pray. St. Paul recalls in his second letter to the Corinthians that in Old Testament times, the people had to put a veil over the face of Moses after he had encountered the Lord on Sinai. To look on the glory of God was too great to bear. In New Testament times St. Paul reminds us that "all of us with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord, as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." (2 Cor 3:18).

That sentiment of St. Paul should encourage us in being faithful to daily meditation. We may seem to achieve little; we may be subject to many distractions, but all the time we are slowly being transformed inwardly and being made more like Christ in the sentiments of our minds and hearts. It is sometimes said that a husband and wife, who love each other over a long period of years, tend to resemble each other in their physical appearance. It is so with us in prayer. We come to know and love Our Lord more deeply, and as we do, we will represent Him more faithfully in our lives. In sustained prayer and meditation the light of the face of Christ shines on ours and we are made more ready for the experience of seeing Him face to face. In that experience we will find our happiness, not for a moment, as did the disciples on the mountain of the Transfiguration, but for all eternity. May the prayer of the psalmist one day be fulfilled in us: "As for me, in my justice I shall see Your face and be filled, when I awake, with the sight of Your glory." (Ps 17:15).