“Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Cor 13:12)
Why does mankind shy away from the Holy Face Devotion? It has to do with the denial of the hypostatic union in today’s culture. God became man to save us through the Incarnation. Jesus is fully human & full Divine (2 natures). Mankind is made in His Image & Likeness, which is being rejected in this time in history in at least three ways:
i) Openly as a diabolical attack – through the bizarre gender ideologies, and through the infiltration of the Communist and atheistic mentalities into every aspect of society encouraging mankind to live apart from God. This attack has led to reasons ii) and iii) below.
ii) Subtly by his children – through hardness of heart, even a lukewarmness. It is challenging to enter into the moral & physical sufferings manifested on our Lord’s Holy Face, for today, we live in a society that tries to avoid suffering, even reject it outright, as seen in the current “MAID” mentality. But even Christians & Catholics do not want to enter fully into Christ’s suffering, and are scandalized by it, & so refuse to look beyond it to eternal life & the hope of the Beatitude – gazing on the Lord Face to face. The Blessed in heaven know & love God just as He know & loves Himself in His intimate life as Father, Son & Holy Ghost. We fail to grasp that this very Divine love & intimacy is communicated to each one of us right here, right now on earth. The thought of adoring our Lord’s Holy Face with its obvious sufferings, we think, takes too much heroic virtue to bear, and costs too much for us to break away from our comfortable lives of indifference, or even worse, slavery to sin.
iii) Through the watering down of our faith/poor catechesis – Mass attendance in our country of Canada is at an all time low – a dismal 9% of professed Catholics. Moreover, the “Pew Survey” conducted some 5 years ago revealed that only 1/3 of practicing Catholics believe in our Lord’s Presence – Body, Blood, Soul & Divinity in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar. Is it any wonder then, that the majority of mankind lives only for their earthly lives, and not for their eternal lives? We separate the lives of our bodies from the lives of our souls. We are living in an age of the disintegration of the Incarnation within us, whereas, the life of a Christian should be eternal life already in motion! “Grasp hold of eternal life,” (1 Tm 6:12) says St. Paul to his dear disciple Timothy. Over the last 50 years, we have forgotten this fact, or it has been suppressed. We have given into the temptation to divide our lives into two parts a) the tangible, “real life” (loose quotes) on earth below, the one bent on indulging in the passions, goals & enjoyments of this world, and b) the other part considered to be far off in the future, so that we can put of thinking about it with its component of suffering.
But herein lies the paradox – embracing our Lord’s Passion and suffering and not being scandalized by it is the true pathway to freedom, peace, & the ultimate end – Divine life, begun in the here and now. It is the breaking down of the barriers in our hearts to allow our Lord to touch us to the core according to the exhilarating experience of St. John, “For we have seen this life with our own eyes, and touched it with our hands” (1 Jn 1:1). This life that Christ has promised us and that He brought to earth, the simple Christian life, yet unknown in its grandeur, is therefore the life of God Himself transplanted into the human soul, an “apprenticeship” for eternal life.
Therefore, to embrace the Devotion to the Holy Face, God made man, is to fully embrace the Kingdom of God and His majestic reign for all time. At this time in history, mankind needs it more than ever. As our Lord declared to the pious Carmelite nun, Sr. Marie de St. Pierre in the 1840’s, “if you only knew the [Communists’] secret and diabolical plots and their anti-Christian principles…to obtain mercy, ask therefore that this Work of Reparation be established…now if there will still be those who will not recognize that this is truly My Work, it is because they close their eyes!”. Let us refuse to listen to the diabolical lies circulating in our culture currently. Let us fully open the eyes of our hearts in conviction that the Son of God did not keep this Divine life for Himself, but gave the power to become sons of God to all those who believe in His Holy Name, right now in our current lives, and in the life of the Holy Trinity to come. Our Lady of the Holy Name of God, pray for us.
Littlest Wren of the Holy Face Oct 2023