First preached as homily at Croydon Minster, Sunday 7 February, Second Sunday before Lent (Sexagesima). Colossians 1.15-20; John 1.1-14
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God is the creator of all things, the
heavens, the earth and ‘all that therein is’ (Psalm 24.1); and yet the same God,
humbles himself, takes human flesh and shares our existence. That is the wonder
of the Incarnation; something absolutely fundamental to the Christian faith.
And that is how St Paul can say in our first
reading, ‘Christ is the image’ – in Greek ‘the icon’ – ‘of the invisible God’.
Our God is made visible in the in the
person, in the body of Jesus Christ.
In response to that visibility of God we
might say, with the psalmist, ‘My heart hath talked of thee, Seek ye my face :
Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’ (Psalm 27.9).
It’s hard to see faces in a sea of face
coverings! And yet God is unveiled to
us; we seek God’s face.
Gazing upon the face of the human Jesus
Christ is to gaze upon the very face of God.
What do we see in the Divine Face of Jesus?
We see the face of God and we see a
human face with its characteristic features and contours; essentially a face
like yours and mine.
In that Divine Face we see both Christ and
our potential.
The wonderful thing is that to be made in
the image of God does not impose upon us passing aesthetic values of beauty,
perfection, fashion or an ideal; the image of God goes much deeper than that.
For the Christlike face is the face that
reflects God’s light and life: whether that face is male or female; young or
old; Black, brown or white.
So we gaze deeply upon the Divine Face of
Jesus; in that face is life; in that face is light; in that face is glory.
As the psalm puts it, ‘For with thee, O
LORD, is the well of life : and in thy light shall we see light’. (Psalm 36.9),
and St John says ‘and we have seen his glory’ (John 1.14)
Life, light, and glory are hard to glimpse
at the moment in time of lockdown. Yet let’s not think they exist only at the
end of a tunnel. For the eyes of faith life, light, and glory are visible now,
glimpsable now, in the face of Jesus Christ.
On my retreat last week, which I
participated in at home online from the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, I was
able to spend time during what is known as ‘Holy Hour’ simply to gaze upon Jesus
Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.
It was as if gazing upon the Face of Jesus
Christ, Word made Flesh, God visible in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.
There is Word made flesh: Christ visible and
present in our midst as he is in the Eucharist.
That hour paused, as it were, the moment of
hearing the words of Jesus - ‘this is my body, this is my blood’ – and enabled
a sustained, fixed gaze upon the face of Christ.
That is way of contemplative prayer, placing
oneself in the presence of the Creator in his earthly presence as Word made
flesh, simply to be gazed upon, adored, beheld and loved.
Let us seek to gaze upon Christ, the Word
made flesh: and may we each see his life and light, his grace, truth and glory.
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