Seeing God in Mystic Moments
“Yes, as I get older I am coming to realize and appreciate mystic moments when I can see the face of God rather than moments which only appear to be exciting. How blessed I am to have been given TIME!
“Deer walk near my condo daily, now with their young. The other day one came up to my deck, stood there, paused to look at me through my patio rails. I couldn’t help but notice that it was telling me something through its eyes. I enjoyed this mystic moment of heaven’s peace and wonder. God had something to tell me!” (Vivian Bosch, Spiritual writer).
I am reminded of Thomas Merton’s vision at a busy intersection in Louisville, Kentucky. In a moment he was overwhelmed with love he felt for every person there. In that instant they were all walking around shining like the sun. God was breaking through in this mystic moment.
You and I have these moments when we are close to God, and his presence is manifested. In Exodus Moses spoke to God face to face. When he returned to the Israelites his face shone so that he wore a veil to cover it.
In the Old Testament it was feared that if you saw God you would die. That has changed since Jesus became human and made God much more approachable. When we pray, we come into the presence of God our creator and redeemer. We experience the glory of God in the face of Jesus whom we meet in the scriptures, the Eucharist, and in the face of our fellow Christians.
“All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). We begin to radiate the face of Jesus to those around us.
That is the face of God all of us have seen. When we gaze on the face of a prayerful or joyful Christian, we see Jesus. Take time to reflect on this truth today. We are the face of Christ that the world will see or not see in us.
There is an e-mail story about a little boy who goes for a walk with root beer and Twinkies. He stops at a park and sits on a bench alongside an older man who is feeding pigeons. The boy starts to eat a Twinkie and offers the old man one. As he eats the Twinkie the old man gives the boy a smile like he has never seen before. His face just lights up. The boy gives him another Twinkie just so he will smile again.
They sit there all afternoon eating Twinkies and drinking root beer, never saying a word. When the day ends, the young boy starts to walk home. As he takes a few steps away, he turns, runs back to the man, and gives him a big hug. The man gives him the biggest smile that a person could give.
When the old man got home, he was radiant and told his son, “I spent today with God. He’s much younger than I thought He’d be.”
The little boy went home and told his mom, “I met God today, and He has the most beautiful smile you’ve ever seen.”
(560 words)
