For sacred Scripture, contemplating the face of
God is the greatest happiness: “You gladden him with the joy of
your face” (Ps 21:7). From the contemplation of the
face of God are born joy, security and peace. But what does it
mean concretely to contemplate the face of the Lord, as
understood in the New Testament? It means knowing him directly,
in so far as is possible in this life, through Jesus Christ in
whom he is revealed. To rejoice in the splendour of God’s face
means penetrating the mystery of his Name made known to us in
Jesus, understanding something of his interior life and of his
will, so that we can live according to his plan of love for
humanity. In the second reading, taken from the Letter to the
Galatians (4:4-7), Saint Paul says as much as he describes the
Spirit who, in our inmost hearts, cries: “Abba! Father!” It is
the cry that rises from the contemplation of the true face of
God, from the revelation of the mystery of his Name. Jesus
declares, “I have manifested thy name to men” (Jn
17:6). God’s Son made man has let us know the Father, he has let
us know the hidden face of the Father through his visible human
face; by the gift of the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts, he
has led us to understand that, in him, we too are children of
God, as Saint Paul says in the passage we have just heard: “The
proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his
Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’” (Gal
4:6).
Here, dear brothers and sisters, is the
foundation of our peace: the certainty of contemplating in Jesus
Christ the splendour of the face of God the Father, of being
sons in the Son, and thus of having, on life’s journey, the same
security that a child feels in the arms of a loving and all-powerful
Father. The splendour of the face of God, shining upon us and
granting us peace, is the manifestation of his fatherhood: the
Lord turns his face to us, he reveals himself as our Father and
grants us peace. Here is the principle of that profound peace –
“peace with God” – which is firmly linked to faith and grace, as
Saint Paul tells the Christians of Rome (cf. Rom 5:2).
Nothing can take this peace from believers, not even the
difficulties and sufferings of life. Indeed, sufferings, trials
and darkness do not undermine but build up our hope, a hope
which does not deceive because “God’s love has been poured into
our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”
(5:5).
May the Lord grant you His peace, now and always.
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