The Face of God

How often do we, in fact, resent not only Mary, but so many other of our neighbors beside? How often are we angry not only at her, but at so many others, for standing between us and God, for getting in the way?

Whether out of anger, out of fear, or out of pride, I think that we all, all too often, simply wish that other people did not exist. There are many men, above all in our time, who wish that women did not exist; and many women who wish that men did not exist. There are so many to whose existence we are indifferent: and when we are reminded, we are angry. We see the face of the other, male or female, and we resent its relation to our own, resent the demands it makes of us, the threat it poses to us. We resent one another for causing pain, for eliciting desire, for asking for help and for giving it. We hate, we reject, the other merely because he is another, besides ourselves.

This, though, is the awful truth: that we cannot approach God except through and together with each and every one of these persons. Each and every one of them stands between us and God, and each and every one of them is reflected in his face.

Our images of God are pathetic shadows; they are not what he is like. God, in himself, is far more different, far more terrible, far more other, than any person, male or female, we could ever encounter in this life. We are far more dependent on him, far more vulnerable to him, than any child to its mother; and he is far more of a threat to us than any person could ever be. He calls us out of ourselves through pain and desire, and demands that we transcend our very nature, everything we have known and seen and felt and wanted, to be with him forever. He demands that we submit to him in everything, that we be one with him in everything; he demands that we submit to other persons, as representatives and signs. If we think we hate our fellow man, we cannot possibly imagine how much we must hate God.

In the end, it all comes down to this: if we cannot bear the face of a human person, then how can we pretend that we will be able to bear the face of God?

Still, God is gracious, and kind, and merciful. He came to us as a fellow human person, a child, a man, so that we might learn to bear him, and love him, as he is; and he comes to us daily as many men, and many women, and many children. He gave us, too, his mother, to be our own; so that when we look towards his face, we might see her, and be at once humbled and comforted.

May God have mercy on us all, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, pray for us, help us, and save us.