Optional Memorial of Saint Faustina Kowalska, virgin

Collect of Saint Faustina

Lectionary: 460

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

Yesterday I considered God's extraordinary gift to Saint Francis of Assisi; that is, the wounds of Jesus impressed upon his hands, feet, and side.  

Today, we remember Saint Maria Faustina, who had visions especially of the Lord's innumerable wounds on his face and body. As the young woman attended a dance in a Polish park, she received her first vision of the Lord, and saw his suffering face. She saw what many prophets and kings desired to see but did not see; and to hear but did not hear.

The vision of suffering, which was quite similar to Francis's vision on Mount El Verna, caused both grief and joy; and has brought millions of people to the same experience of the Lord. It is an understanding of Our God's intense engagement with his people through the Incarnation of Jesus. When the world tells us that God, if there is a God, should not meddle in human affairs; and that the course of human history is determined by irresistible forces of modernity and progress, God shows us his human face and his human compassion for his people. 

The Eucharist, which has been revealed to us as the very flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, engages the devout in the passion, death, and resurrection of our God. Where the world insists upon the "death of God," we see, hear, and announce the Good News that He has risen and appeared to Cephas.

Visionaries like Faustina and Francis reawaken our fascination with the price of our salvation, even as our faithful celebration of Holy Week draws us back into his orbit. The Spirit of God does not abandon us because we must be the constant presence and reminder of God's love to a sorely distracted world. 

But that Spirit can arouse inspiration and hope even at the sight 

of grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots....

In hopelessly barren settings, we may be given 

the notion of some infinitely gentle / Infinitely suffering thing. 

We are not fascinated by progress or modernity, nor by power. If there are forces beyond human control, which drive both our technological progress and our increasing threat to life and Earth, we know they too are subject to God's sovereign reign. Although He does not cause wounds, suffering, or death, he uses them for our salvation; and we place all our confidence in him.