I.
My Father, those eyes of love
gaze upon me so intensely,
eyes of goodness and of grace,
eyes that, looking,
bestow the beauty that they see.
I am—because you see me,
and I am exactly as you see.
The goodness you desire,
you yourself beget in me;
the radiance of my countenance
is only a reflection of your own—
of that face, which, shining brightly,
always gazes out: upon your Son.
Son, my only-begotten One,
the radiance of your countenance
wounds my deepest Heart:
for in the face I gaze deep within,
in the eyes I read the Heart.
And in your Heart, my Son,
I see indeed only one,
your Heart and mine.
One Heart, for mine flows from you,
an effusion of Love,
like water flowing down
from the heights, cascading,
dancing, upon the depths of water below—
yet how can words express how this water
flows up again to you, united with the Source,
in the very act by which it comes forth?
Acceptance, reciprocal surrender,
these are one, Father, between you and I.
Ah, yes, you give me beauty,
so that I may be Beautiful—
—Ah, yes, I am captured by your Beauty,
to give myself to you!
My Heart is drawn by Love’s magnetism
to communicate all to you, my Son.
And mine, by receiving,
cannot but pour itself out again to you.
A glance, a single moment’s look,
communicates all, my Love.
Seeing once, I see through and through,
and this moment lasts forever—
an eternity of love.
Seen once, I am seen forever,
known, I am known entirely,
and I know you, Father,
even as I am known.
Known, my Son, in this Love,
this Look, this Gaze,
exchanged between you and I,
in our Communication of self,
where, given, received,
we are, and will be,
in the single moment of eternity, one:
in the Spirit of Love who belongs to us both,
in whom, together, we belong.
II.
My Father, these eyes of love,
mine and yours, gaze out—
upon a world—and, looking,
they create.
In gazing, in a single glance,
which is never-ending contemplation
and radiant, unceasing delight,
we clothe in beauty the creatures
whom we have lovingly made.
Clothe, yet not from without alone,
for eyes of love always look within.
My Son, you see that the most precious
of my creatures,
the children made to share
in our own image and likeness,
in the radiance of that Beauty, given—
have not seen in what lies true love:
ah, look, my Son, they desire not to receive!
They think they must grasp,
must make beauty, goodness,
as if it were their own,
as if—ah!—as if it were not pure gift.
I look, Father, but in them
I still see beauty, hidden.
Who can take it away?
Beauty, but buried deep within
the shame of the fallen heart.
Come, Father, let us go to them,
you and I, and our Spirit too.
Let us seek them out,
let us dwell within,
after making them again our own,
and open up,
in acceptance, in reciprocal surrender,
those hearts enclosed in fear.
Yes, my Son,
I am drawn by the magnetism of love!
Ah! how my Heart aches for them
— as yours.
Go, you first,
draw near to them,
and I will be in you.
Draw near and walk among them,
love them as you have been loved by me.
Give the Spirit whom I have given to you;
pour him out
as he has poured forth into your Heart,
eternally,
cascading, like an immensity of water,
falling,
into the poverty of the human heart.
And he will prepare a place for you,
for me,
to dwell there among them,
to pitch our tent in their very place of exile,
pilgrims in a strange land,
so that,
already, in their very place of wandering,
they may be citizens of the blessed homeland,
children,
in the mansions where we dwell.
—The abode, Father, which is your very bosom,
that blessed embrace of love!
I go, that they may return here to this place.
III.
The dust of our roads,
kicked up by the feet of God—
what is this marvel?
The water drawn from our wells
to quench the thirst of the eternal Fountain!
He is here among us,
eating at our table,
laboring at the same burdens as we.
He feels the same hunger,
fasting,
the same thirst,
parched by the desert heat.
What is this?
Tempted to turn stones into bread,
to show a display of power,
to fall down in adoration before the power of evil
so as to share in its domain?
No, but he is different.
He is bound by the same limitation and weakness,
yet free from our chains—
a free Man in a world of slavery,
born to set us free.
More than this,
there is something deeper,
don’t you see?
A power goes forth from him,
not like what the world calls power.
Those who draw near,
they feel it,
those who are simple, weak,
they know.
It is love they feel,
and mercy,
the compassion burning in the Heart of God,
aflame in the Heart of this One
who is present among us,
a child of his mother,
a brother to us all.
The Father of eternal glory
is reflected in his face;
the Bridegroom of all,
the same who led us through the desert
so many centuries ago.
He is here.
How can eternal and infinite Love
be contained by the limits of time,
by the boundaries of our space?
He rises early, very early in the morning
to go into the hills to pray.
Exhausted, he falls asleep
on a cushion in our boat!
Then, awaking, a single word of his
stills the elements which no creature obey.
Who then must this be?
There, in his eyes,
is a mysterious glimmer,
a piercing gaze, which looks,
not to judge or condemn,
but to love and to accept.
Do you not feel:
he does not look to discern
whether there is anything lovable in you
—for he already knows what he will find there—
but that he looks to awaken the beauty
slumbering deep within?
I know, I, who have leaned against his breast.
I have felt there mysteries unspeakable,
I have seen things unseen,
touched what cannot be touched.
Who can read this Word,
written into the lines of our history?
Who can hear his voice,
echoing in the wind as it rustles in the trees?
Before our world was,
HE IS.
Our whole creation is like a parchment
on which is written one word:
Son.
For when our God looks upon us,
what does he see?
He sees the image of his well-Beloved,
the One begotten of him from eternity to eternity.
We are all like a scroll held in his hand,
like the blood that flows through his veins,
surging from and returning to that precious Heart.
We are all…ah, what wonder…
a bride he has made, and come,
to espouse lovingly to himself.
This precious Body,
yes, it is the body of every man and woman.
The two shall become one flesh,
God and humanity,
in the Body of the Son.
What is this?
This Body sweats drops of Blood!
What?
It is by fierce scourges rent.
Look at him—no, look away!
Ah, what can one do?
Run, hide? Stand and pray?
This is my body, broken, rent.
But this is the Body belonging to the Son of God.
Power of love, here mocked
and condemned to indignity.
Here, silent like a lamb led to slaughter,
the Word who never ceases to sound.
Listen…
can you hear his silence speak?
Carrying that terrible burden
up the hill of our death.
Do you feel the beams
pressed against your shoulders,
yet, at the same time,
lifted from you?
What he carries, he takes from us.
What we carry, it now belongs to him.
What exchange is this—
the Innocent is condemned,
tortured, crucified,
that the guilty may go free?
Love enters into the abyss of our lovelessness,
and, as a lamp on a lampstand,
is raised aloft in our darkness.
Healing rays of love,
heartbeat surging right up against our own…
This narrow, suffocating heart
within my breast,
expands on contact with his.
Ah…nails pierce the sacred flesh!
This meek lamb gives hardly a cry,
but see the tears streaming down his cheeks?
All of humanity is gathered here.
We all watch this spectacle,
played out before our eyes.
It is something we always knew,
yet something we never knew,
nor could have even imagined.
The ugliness and pain of our sin,
we see…but disarmed
in the outstretched arms of Love.
Yes, raised up for every eye to see—
in this way he descends into the depths,
the depths of our hearts,
where he makes a home,
wedding himself to our creaturely poverty,
yet overcoming the poverty of sin
and transforming it into the poverty of love.
IV.
My Heart yearns, dearest Father,
that they may be with me where I am.
I have come among them—
here I am now,
yet I have not left your side.
I taste the bitter drink of sin,
but from your bosom, the Wellspring of Love,
I never cease to drink.
Your face, Father, is veiled to them,
and I must go beyond the veil,
that through love it may be rent.
Yes, so we have desired,
and so I desire now.
This is a sanctuary of mystery
which they will never comprehend.
Love alone can taste it,
how One can experience in his Heart
both agony and joy,
the pain of separation
yet the union which nothing can tear asunder.
I surrender to you here,
affixed to this Cross,
breathing forth my last…
this breath, dear God!
It is our Spirit, filling the lungs of humanity.
It is the flame of love
thawing the heart frozen by sin and fear.
It is the light of Love
illumining the darkest place.
Yes, perhaps they can know,
though the smallest drop,
this mystery of pain and joy
which I have known before them.
For in me, I have opened up the path,
the way of love,
which penetrates every substance
and transforms it into itself,
which floods all with the fountain of eternal joy.
For you gaze, Father,
with those piercing eyes of love,
and, even when our eyes grow dim,
that glance of love sees as in brightest day
—and carries us, as a child in its mother’s arms,
tranquil and secure,
resting against her bosom,
into the fullness of your embrace!
V.
Ah, my Son!
Today I have begotten you.
Now: the Today of eternity
and that of time
meet…
As the Light of your gaze,
Father,
pierces the depths of the tomb,
the depths of the place of death
—and gives life,
the Dawn from on high shining upon creation,
breaking the bars of hell,
shattering the chains that bind,
illumining the tombs of those who sleep.
I rise, Father,
I come to you!
And in my Heart, my flesh,
I carry every person!
You stand with them, my Son.
In you, Love abides in the very fabric
of redeemed creation.
You Heart beats silently, gently
—and mine in You—
in the depths of every heart,
in the slightest stirring of the breeze,
the whistling of the birds,
the voice of man, woman, child.
The sunrise, casting its rays over the earth,
the tender warmth, the golden hue:
this is the gaze of my Son,
victorious over death,
coming as a Bridegroom from his tent
to take his Bride to himself—
—to bring her to you, my Father,
enfolding her in my arms,
so that she may be where I am,
to behold my glory that you have given me
in your love for me
before the foundation of the world.
That she may share,
fully and completely,
in the radiance of this single glance of love
that passes for all eternity
between you and I,
in this knowledge and intimacy
which is ours in the Spirit of Love.
Right here, in this midst of this
silent dialogue,
she abides…
I in you, and you in me,
and she, in us both,
one…in the bliss of eternal Love.