We cannot see Him. Once, mankind walked with God and saw His face, but we pursued the devices and desires of our own hearts, we thought to be as wise as God – an endeavour showing how foolish we are as a species. So we were banished. Like Isaiah we fear to see His holiness for we know we are men of unclean lips. And yet the Psalmist expresses what is in the hearts of all Christians when he writes:
‘My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Augustine says the same thing and extends it when he says that our hearts are restless until they find rest in God, and if we will, even for a moment, turn from the clamant noises we seek and which fill our ears, then our hearts too, will tell us this; the Spirit reaches out to us all, and we know that even though we are far off, God reaches out for us. My beloved George Herbert puts it well in his wonderful The Pulley
But keep them with repining restlesnesse:
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,
If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast
That emptiness we strive so hard to keep at bay, is the longing to which we yield when we give in – as Herbert suggests, it is a natural process designed by God. When we think we know better, we strive and use our strength, as though we really can take the kingdom of heaven by storm. However, if we will strip away our pride of self, if we will receive him as a small child, then that balancing of which Herbert wrote, can take place.
As we approach what Eliot called the ‘Midwinter spring‘
When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,
The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,
we can take advantage of the darkness and the silence to cease from mental strife, and in the dying to ourself, we find the new life in him. We cannot, broken vessels that we are, see him clear, but even through a glass darkly is better than naught.
It is called ‘faith’ because our sin does not allow the certainty of seeing him – like Isaiah we would want a burning coal to purge our sin. In the quietness of prayer, we can reflect that Jesus’ sacrifice has paid the price for our sins and that his love embraces us even as sinners; He is always there, where are we?
We watch and we wait this Advent season. Sometimes our theologising with our heads misses what our hearts tell us – which is that we are loved of God. Herbert caught our feelings so well here:
Love bade me welcome.
Yet my soul drew back
God, being love, does not, in the poem, accept our refusal to look on Him, but rather:
“Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, Who made the eyes but I?”
Like the Prodigal, Herbert’s sinner cannot accept the love, but offers rather to be a humble servant – to which God/Love responds:
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.]
If we will but ‘sit and eat’, then our restless heart will find fulfillment in Him.
There are some here who will take me to task on this, but I’ll share it anyway. I do see His face each time I go to Mass and the priest holds up the Host and proclaims, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! Blessed are they who are called to the supper of the Lamb.” And there He is, once again, calling me to Communion with Him in His very own Body and Blood found in the Eucharist. I say “Amen, come Lord Jesus,” and respond as the Church desires and in a few short minutes, I receive Him just after gazing upon His face.
In the Eucharistic Prayers that get used, the “light of His face” gets mentioned. I think it is Eucharistic Prayer #2, but don’t bet on me being right. I’m no liturgist.
So, IMHO, it is truly right and just to seek His face in the Eucharist at Mass. You might just find Him there. He did, after all, say He would be there and there is exactly where He is, just as He said.
God bless. Ginnyfree.
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I concur. I know whom I encounter at the Eucharist, and that is all I know or need to know at that moment.
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Gazing on the face of Our Lord at communion …. Gosh, I’m impressed.
You know, Californians have to take enormous quantities of psychedelic drugs to achieve the same effect.
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And Catholics just need to attend Mass.
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How rude Jock spore.
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Hello Jock – nice to see you back – I think we all experience Him as He means us to – probably why He created us all differently?
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You certainly have an interesting perspective, the same one of my late Dad. My Dad was a Methodists who later in life converted to Catholicism. I asked him, having been raised in the Catholic faith, how he could believe in the Transubstantiation. My Dad pondered there for a moment and said, “I see little old ladies sitting in the front pews who go to mass every single day. They believe without a shadow of a doubt that Christ is present in the bread and wine.” My father then quoted Matthew 7:7-8, “7 “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
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Jessica, thanks for yours – and very nice to hear from you again.
Did they give you chemotherapy? I know a few people who have had it. For some it is rougher than others, but it seems to me that they’ve improved the drugs enormously and it’s much easier on the system now than it was (say) 20 years ago – and more effective.
Anyway, it’s excellent to see that you are well again.
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Thank you Jock. No, I refused chemo, taking the view that if it was my time, I’d go without too much complaint. For reasons no one can explain, it cleared up suddenly; I know it was the miracle of prayer, but trying telling the medics! Nice to see you back 🙂 xx
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Well, yes – I thank God for your miraculous healing.
I’d thank him even more, though, if I didn’t see healthy clean living people getting strange and totally inexplicable cancers.
Both my own parents and both my wife’s parents have had cancers removed. They’re all clean living (they don’t smoke, they don’t drink very much, they have a good diet and plenty of exercise) and none of them have any history of cancer in the family. My own parents come from a proud tradition, dating back to times of Robert the Bruce, of death from heart attack or stroke. Cancer is unheard of. So I really wonder what is going wrong. Was the whole world contaminated as a result of Chernobyl? Is there something entering the food chain somewhere? Why do these cancers appear?
My parents had chemo. It was a reasonably light dose, because the doctors thought that the whole tumour had been removed in the operation, but they gave the chemo anyway just to make sure.The side effects weren’t too bad at all; not nearly as bad as they had been warned to expect. The only imposition was that they weren’t allowed to go out in the sun. This (unfortunately) turned out not to be a problem, because there wasn’t any sun.So I don’t think that chemo is anything to worry about these days.
It’s very good to see you back.
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Thank you Jock. I am sorry to hear about your parents and parents in law. It is a puzzle that there is so much cancer about. No one could explain where mine came from – there is no history at all. As it was a tumour in the brain, chemo would have been nasty, as would the operation, and the chances were about 50:50 that I’d have ended up with brain damage. I wasn’t prepared to take that risk. They were cross with me, but with help from relatives, I stuck to my guns. They were not, I think best pleased when the tumour vanished. I think they’d have liked to have sectioned me when I put it down to the power of prayer. 🙂 xx
It is good to have you back too. I have been enjoying reading you and Geoffrey and Dave – such clever men the three of you. I get my education here quite a lot of the time 🙂
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Ah – I didn’t know that it was in the brain. I have one aunt who had a tumour removed approximately 8 years ago (again, no history of brain tumours in the family). The tumour was benign and they didn’t give her any chemo afterwards. Apart from some paralysis on the left side of her face, she seems to be back to normal.
As far as the discussions go, I’m simply an amateur here. Geoffrey and Dave Smith are ‘professionals’. Everything that I say is a poor reflection of what I heard from James Philip’s sermons at Holyrood Abbey when I was a student at Edinburgh (October 1986 – October 1988).
I have read some books, but in my experience the spoken word is very important, because the memorable stuff all came from the sermons.
I tried to see if there was anything of it on the web – and I discovered that his son put all his sermons up on the web:
http://www.thetron.org/resources/the-james-philip-archives/james-philip-archive/
I started at October 1986 and left in October 1988 (when I left Edinburgh). I found the evening series on Romans (87 – 89) particularly useful. Now that I have found them, I’ll try listening to them again.
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Oh that’s a lovely set of sermons, Jock – thank you. I have taken to listening to sermons in a big way during my convalescence, so these will be a real blessing. I love his voice already 🙂 xx
The chemo would have been nasty, and I was told my tumour was malignant, so I left it in His hands – He has decided, and I let the ‘experts’ sort out their reactions. I’m happy, and I’m humble enough to accept a miracle and to give perpetual thanks 🙂
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Ginny, take comfort in Apostolic tradition, The Eucharist Prayer #2 is based from the words of St. Hippolytus of the early pre-Nicaea Church.
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“Sometimes our theologising with our heads misses what our hearts tell us – which is that we are loved of God.” So true. If the Church had as much heart as it has head, what a sight that would be!
“Love took my hand, and smiling did reply, Who made the eyes but I?” I almost want to take this and put it with my artist statement, for that is how I often feel when I am studying many works of art. As if God is somehow speaking through the artist to reference His own living creation – and make me understand thereby. But like you said, one has to stop and really take the time…
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Yes, sometimes we just need to be quiet and let God in 🙂 xx
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I agree very much. How else can He work more profoundly on our hearts? 🙂
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And still, we so often attempt to fill that void with things of this world, and yet, I think we know that for which we long, but until we put away the things of this world, we shall not be refreshed.
And how wonderful to see Herbert return to these pages, he’s hard for me to interpret properly, but you do it well, dearest friend. 🙂
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Thank you dearest friend xx
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🙂 xxx
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Excellent post! I always experience inner trembling when approaching and receiving Holy Communion, the enormity of what is happening is soul stirring and euphoric
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i have trouble accepting that god could love me because i barely love myself. i know god loves me because i have been told that but i don’t feel it at all. all see are cuts on my arms and people being chased away in fear…
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NES, I am going to pray for you a whole lot. BPD is Hell. I know. My trial by fire ended a few years back and the numbness has healed. I am loved and KNOW it. I’m stepping out on a limb to reach out to you. I don’t often disclose my troubles but I felt you needed to know you are NOT ALONE. It does get better. Cling to Jesus. He has seen me thru so much that I can tell you first hand it does get infinitely better, better than I’d ever dared to imagine. From BPD Hell to Heaven on earth. Don’t listen to the tapes in your head, listen to the WORD made flesh. It is all real. I cannot tell you how long your own healing process will take. I wish I could tell you that 6 months from now you’ll be better and on the mend. I cannot. No one can. But I can tell you it is possible to heal because I have. Jesus is the answer. He is the Great Physician. Do all you can to help Him. Just pray. All day long if you have to. I used the Divine Mercy Chaplet over and over. I can practically say it in my sleep! Really no joke. It worked because I refused to give up and give into the need to feel something or to relieve the pressure by doing things. Yeah. Been there done that. I don’t anymore. Thanks be to God, literally. F.R.O.G. That is an acronym for Fully Rely On God. There ya go.
God bless. Ginnyfree.
P.S. This was not meant to be a testimonial. I am reaching out to help another human being and hope that whatever information that I have revealed about my personal life and self will be respected by those who come here. I need confidentiality. I trust as Christians you can give it.
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Perhaps similar to BPD but the nurse practitioner does not think it is BPD. She thinks it might be manic-depression which is quite similar. Regardless, I am glad I am not alone.
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Jock – NewEnglandSun did reply, but as he will have known, the nature of those replies means that they are not to be allowed here. Jessica’s rules were very few when it came to moderation – bad language and sexual insults were not allowed – for NES’s information, they still are not.
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his comment upset me. i demand his comment be removed.
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My feeling is that you should remove the comment that he doesn’t like. It was out of turn.
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Fair enough Jock – and thank you.
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NES is not well, and from time to time will fall into angry comments – which is why he is on moderation. I just did not want you – or him – to think there had been no response.
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