Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

Faces! What variety! Variety in bone structure, eyes, hair, expression, smiles, mouths! And as the races intermingle through marriage so many new variations! When we first meet another, it's the face we scrutinize, it's the face by which we most often try to remember all those people we met at the cocktail party or on the train to work. 

The more you think about it, the more amazing it is that the face with its expressions can tell us so much; or, at least, that we can read so much there. There are faces the sight of which can transform a day or bring light to the moment, faces we long to see again and again, faces that bring back memories. Faces that cause our own face to light up.

The psalmist prays: “O God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shed its light upon us” ((66)67:1). Where else would a sacred writer get the idea of referring to the face of God if not from wonderful experiences of human faces? God sheds his light upon us most often through those human faces, dear, tender, beautiful; whatever they may be to us.

God looks at us with the assurance that we are loved most clearly through the faces of those who show us love. The Old Testament priestly blessing tells it all: “The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace”! (Numbers 6:24-26)

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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