Oct. 29, 2010 Friday: Jesus's Gaze - "What Jesus is Like"
The following is an excerpt from the book "What Jesus Is Like" written by a mystic Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida (d. 1937). She was a wife, mother, foundress, and a lay apostle whose cause for beatification is under way.
Chapter 13: His Gaze
"Jesus, looking at him, loved him" (cf. Mk 10:21)
Jesus' gaze, when He walked the earth, would cause a profound awakening in others. When He passed by, the eyes of blind were opened. Paralytics threw away their crutches. Those who were sick sprang from their beds completely cured. Jesus had a divine attraction about Him which tore at hearts that were thirsting for love and truth. He satisfied their longing because He Himself was Love, Truth and Life.
Jesus always looks at us with Infinite Kindness. He watches over us. He never tires of knocking at the door of our hearts. Nor does He tire of waiting for us to open to Him, because He loves us. He will take our mortal life into His own divine hands so that He might give us eternal life. He will close our eyes here on earth, that He might open them to the True Light. He will always be our consolation and our happiness. He will not allow us to weep like those who have no hope.
The Father looks with a glance that gives. We, on the other hand, look with an attitude of seeking. We look asking for things. By means of that Eternal and Infinite Gaze, the Father communicated His essence to the Divine Word. That Gaze is life-giving, since it is the gaze of God Himself. The soul is a mirror in which the Divine Gaze is reflected. God is light. The more this Divine Light shines, the greater the union we will have. The greater the innocence and purity of heart. Then, if Jesus looks at us, we shall also contemplate Him because He has said, "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" (cf. Mt 5:8).
Let us ask Jesus to look at us as He looked at St. Peter. As He looked at Mary Magdalene. With this life-giving gaze that produces saints. Let us beg for those Divine Glances that open the soul to holy expansiveness. And let us allow ourselves to be bathed in those Most Holy Glances that purify, sanctify, unite and intimately bind the Divine Heart to our own.
