face to Face

Have you had the experience of  dreaming about something, waiting for it to happen for years; and then finally seeing your hopes  realized?  I felt like that when I held a printed copy of The God Who is Love in my hands.  For ten years I had been longing for the day when I would be able to share the story of what God did for me, the Truth He opened my eyes, in depth - and there it finally was.

I was reminded of that feeling while praying the Rosary and meditating on Jesus' Presentation in the Temple.  The elderly Simeon had waited years, perhaps the majority of his life, to see the Messiah. (God had promised him that he would before he died.)

"Moved by the Spirit, [Simeon] went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:  'Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.'” (Lk 2:27-32).

Between the time God made His promise to Simeon and the day it was finally realized, it must have come to feel a bit like a dream:  Simeon had tried to imagine the child's face thousands of times, only to see a blur in his mind's eye.  And then, on a day that started like any other, Jesus was suddenly in his arms, Simeon looking down into His small face and taking in His delicate features.

You and I share Simeon's experience.  Jesus is the focus of our lives, and we think about Him and speak to Him throughout every day; but we are still waiting to see His Face!  But we have the promise that we will:

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Cor 13:12)

We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 Jn 3:2)

Some days, with the passage of years, that day may seem foggy and hard to envision; but it is coming.  We will see Him face to Face; and the years of waiting and longing will melt away in the light of Reality.

Face on the Shroud of Turin, compliments of thejoyfulservant.com

An Infant Lamb

It was an unusual experience. I was laying in bed the other night, in that twilight state between conscious and unconscious, when the words of Isaiah were in my head, "Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth" (53:7). The strangest part about it though was that I was saying those words to myself while seeing this image of Jesus' presentation in the Temple - the infant Jesus, silent as a lamb led to slaughter. My mind registered that Mary and Joseph would have carried Him through the Temple courtyard, bustling with animals to be offered in sacrifice. This struck me as something unique, so I roused myself enough to grab the journal on my bedside table and jot it down. And that's it.

I would like to unpack it more, but don't know what to say at the moment. I recall reading a couple of years back a meditation written by Sr. Lucia (of Fatima) on the presentation, where she felt that Mary was presenting Jesus for sacrifice - but I could see that in only an extended sense: she was offering Him completely to the Lord's service, and His sacrificial death could be seen as implicit in that offering. I don't know. Something to think on.

(Image, Presentation In The Temple, courtesy of: http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=dwellingintheword.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2%2Fwww.holyhillcross.com%2FPRESENTATION%2520IN%2520THE%2520TEMPLE.jpg)