Reflection on Ps 105:4
“Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!”
The psalms often encourage us to seek the Lord. We should seek His face and His strength, that is, His almighty power. The process of seeking is painful. When you lose something, you feel worried and distressed, especially if it was an important or valuable thing. The most valuable thing for us is eternal life. And this life is given us by God in His Son Jesus Christ.
To seek the Lord’s face means to enter into God’s presence, to realize that God sees me, and I open my heart fully to Him, knowing that there is no point in hiding anything from Him because He knows everything.
In prayer, I also seek the face of His Son Jesus Christ, my Redeemer. I can imagine it vividly and specifically. The more intimate my relationship to Jesus, the more authentic this inner image. That was also why the saints emphasized interior prayer based on the contemplation of Christ’s suffering, particularly in His final hours on the cross. They focused on three short guiding principles: see, hear, and experience. With their spiritual eyes, they saw Jesus’ pierced hands bleeding, they heard the painful moaning, and they suffered with Him. Some saints even received the stigmata on their body – Christ’s wounds in the hands, feet and side. It does not mean that we should desire the stigmata. We must desire inner communion with Jesus! Let us ask ourselves: How did You, Jesus, suffer for me, and how do I suffer for You?
Not only in prayer but also in suffering, whether mental or physical, we should unite our pain to Jesus’ pain, be crucified with Him in a particular situation by renouncing our will, our unbelief, our grumbling, and by giving thanks for our suffering. Surely we know that we can thus endure purgatory on earth and escape purgatory after death. It can also be a source of grace for mission. Many will then turn from the path of death to the path of life. A certain saint said that she desired to endure the greatest suffering until the end of the world to save a single soul. We need not fabricate suffering, but when it comes, we should accept it with faith. Of course, there are situations where we should avoid suffering, but if it cannot be avoided, we should accept it with faith and unite it with the sufferings of Jesus.
As for the images of the face of Christ produced by different artists, they do not always dispose us to a personal relationship to Jesus. Especially modern artists, who have no inner relationship with our Lord and Saviour, are unable to make a true icon of the face of Christ. An image by an artist who also produces immoral images or takes an interest in occult practices or pagan pseudoreligions or listens to decadent music and has the spirit of the world is an obstacle for believers in their relationship to Jesus. A true icon must bring us into a personal relationship, speak to us, arouse compassion in us on the great suffering of Jesus, and inspire love for Him in our hearts. The majority of modern icons and statues not only do not bring us to piety or a personal relationship to Jesus, but they are literally a display of caricatures and blasphemy against God.
The image of the face of Christ should express a penetrating look from the eyes of Jesus into my eyes. It must lead me not only to the awareness of the great suffering that Jesus endured for me but also to the knowledge of His selfless love. It must fill me with sorrow at failing to truly love Christ, to keep His commandments, to find time for Him. Of course, we have our daily duties and responsibilities which we must fulfil; we cannot spend 24 hours in prayer, this is impossible, and God does not even want us to. However, Jesus says to the apostles with sorrow, and His words apply to us too: “Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray!” Yes, at least one hour a day. This is the minimum we can do for our soul, especially nowadays, when people spend hours on the internet. They are mostly absorbed by vanities, or even by things harmful to the soul. And, if nothing else, they waste a lot of time. Communication on a horizontal level, even if it is for the sake of online mission, is not enough. A Christian definitely has to set aside a fixed time for God, at least one hour a day. That is why it is so important for every Christian family to have a fixed prayer time – the holy hour from 8 to 9 pm. Without it, the mind remains in the chaos of the world and one lacks the strength to keep God’s commandments or to communicate with others in the family. One-hour prayer watch every fourth week of the month is also important. If there are more people keeping the prayer watch, they create a net of continual prayer to God for us, our families and our nation, and carry on a mission of prayer.
So when you pray, seek the Lord’s face – in other words, realize that God sees you. When we ask for something, we should be aware that nothing is impossible with God. We must believe like the Blessed Virgin and stand firm in the faith. This concerns above all our prayer for spiritual values, or for the conversion and salvation of others. It is particularly necessary that parents should pray for their children, primarily for those who have strayed from the faith.
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