The desire of prophets and kings

The Lord Jesus says to his disciples today, "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" (Luke 10:23-24). What was it these prophets and kings desired to see and hear?

The Prophet Isaiah said, "I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him" (Isaiah 8:17). King David prayed, "Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your merciful love" (Psalm 31:16)! The prophets and kings, then, longed to look upon the face of God and to hear his voice.

This desire to look upon God's face runs like a thread through all of the texts of the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments. After Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a group of Greeks approached the Apostle Saint Philip and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus" (John 12:21). Does not this same desire reside deep within our hearts, as well? Do we not also wish to see Jesus, to look upon what kings and prophets desired to see?

We know that this desire will be granted to us with the Second Coming of Christ Jesus, which we now await with eager expectation in these days of Advent. Saint Paul says, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (I Corinthians 13:12). The Apostle Saint John says, "they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads" (Revelation 22:4).

With the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, the Lord God has indeed revealed his Face to us in Jesus the Christ. This is why Jesus said to  Saint Philip, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). The ancient desire of prophets and kings to see the face of God has been granted in the Son of God and of Mary.

What is more, the Lord Jesus has left us a foretaste of the Beatific Vision of his Holy Face on a piece of byssus, once housed in the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome and now housed in the Basilica of the Holy Face in Manoppello:

This Face is the desire of prophets and kings. Knowing that this Face is our deep desire, as well, the Lord, in his merciful love, he has left an image of his Face for us, to gaze upon, to marvel at, and to ponder until he comes again in his glory with his angels (cf. Matthew 25:31). It is this veil that the Apostle Saint Peter found in the tomb (cf. John 20:6-7). When he looked upon this handkerchief, Saint John "saw and believed" in the Resurrection of the Lord (John 20:8).

Let us, then, in these days of Advent, cry out to the Lord with the words of the hymn, "O Come, Divine Messiah":

Dear Savior, haste!Come, come to earth.Dispel the night and show your face,and bid us hail the dawn of grace.

O come, divine Messiah;the world in silence waits the daywhen hope shall sing its triumphand sadness flee away.

May the Lord come quickly. May he not delay. May he grant us the full vision of the beauty of his Face!

Orthodox Bishops celebrate the Divine Liturgy before the Volto Santo

Word of the Volto Santo - the veil that covered the face of Christ Jesus in the tomb and now bears the image of his face after his Resurrection - slowly continues to spread among the faithful as the desire to behold the face of God increases in the hearts of those who love him.

Today, nearly seventy bishops of the Latin and Orthodox Churches taking part in the fourteenth plenary session of the joint commission for theological dialogue between the Churches visited the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, Italy where the Divine Liturgy was celebrated before the Volto Santo:

PHOTO: Antonio Bini

I learned of the plans for this celebration some months ago and have anxiously been awaiting photographs and stories from the day's celebrations (which I hope to share with you as I receive them).

PHOTO: Antonio Bini

Antonio Bini, to whom I am grateful for many kindnesses over these past several months, reports that a representative of each of the fourteen Orthodox Churches prayed in ten languages before the Volto Santo. Afterward, they prayed the Our Father together in Italian.

Let us pray that the Lord Jesus will restore unity to his Church through a mutual desire to look upon his Holy Face!

Pope Francis receives a copy of the Holy Face

His Holiness Pope Francis received this morning a copy of the Holy Face of Manoppello in a double-sided frame, a gift of the Rulli family who live in Manoppello:

I hope this gift will inspire the Holy Father to visit the Shrine of the Holy Face in person to look upon the cloth that once covered the Savior's inside the tomb.

Capello tip to Raymond Frost.

One of my favorite cries from the lips of the Psalmists: "Lord, let your face shine upon us!"

Each person who reads the collection of Psalms contained in the Sacred Scriptures seems to be more drawn to certain psalms than others. This is only natural as we each have our own personalities and the Psalms express, in one way or another, every emotion of the human heart.

The verses of the Psalms which speak of the desire to see God have always moved my soul. When first I read them, they seemed to express the deepest yearning of my heart, this verse perhaps above all:

As a deer longs for flowing streams,

so my soul longs for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and behold the face of God (Psalm 42:2-3)?

This was long before I knew anything of the sacred veil revered today at the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello!

Now I can say that I have seen the very image of his Holy Face which he himself left behind for us in his tomb (see John 20:7). Now these prayers of the Psalmists take on for me a new depth of meaning and express my longing all the more!

Holy Mother Church puts these words from one of the Psalms of King David into our mouths today, "Lord, let your face shine on us" (Psalm 4:7). We speak these words as the antiphon (a.k.a., the refrain), but in the chanting of Psalm 4 we will sing, "O LORD, let the light of your countenance shine upon us" (Psalm 4:7)!

The word "countenance" is not one we use with great frequency today, though it does occur with some frequency in English translations of the Scriptures. What, then, is a countenance?

The Oxford English Dictionary explains the origin of the word - which can often be the best means for understanding a word's meaning - thus: "Middle English: from Old French contenance 'bearing, behaviour', from contenir (see contain). The early sense was 'bearing, demeanour', also 'facial expression', hence 'the face'."

It is somewhat unfortunate that today we will not also chant first half of verse 7 of Psalm 4 today, which seems to give ever more significance to David's plea: "Many say, 'May we see better times!'" The Revised Standard Translation translates verse 7 a little differently: "There are many who say, 'O that we might see some good!' Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord!'"

Both translations, though, express the same thought, that to look upon the face of God is look upon he who is good.

The living face of the Father's mercy

This evening - as Holy Mother Church enters into her celebration of the Divine Mercy - His Holiness Pope Francis will publish his Bull of Indiction, Misericordiae Vultus (Face of Mercy), to convoke the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which he will open on 8 December 2015.

When the Holy Father announced his decision to proclaim this holy year less than a month ago, Pope Francis referred to Jesus as the "living face of the Father’s mercy."

I am returning today to the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello to gaze once again upon "the napkin, which had been lying on [Jesus'] head" that the Apostle Peter found in the empty tomb "not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a separate place by itself" (John 20:7):

This is the face of him who said to the Apostle Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put our your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing" (John 20:27).

You can forget all the faces of others, but you cannot forget this Face

Il Volto Santo / The Holy Face

After visiting il Volto Santo at Manoppello, Father Mario Morelli wisely declared:

After taking only one glance (at the Holy Face), you can die and forget all the faces of others, but you cannot forget this Face.

From my own visits to the Shrine of the Holy Face, I can testify that his words are certainly true. What awaits us in heaven, we do not know; but we know who awaits us, and we know his face because he has left his living image for us. Looking upon the wondrous veil that once covered his face as he lay dead in the tomb, it becomes very difficult to doubt his Resurrection from the dead.

After he gazed upon the Holy Face of Jesus, His Holiness Benedict XVI wrote a prayer which he sent to the friars at the shrine. In the prayer, he prayed:

Lord Jesus,
As the first apostles,
Whom you asked: “What do you seek?”,
Accepted your invitation to: “Come and See”
Recognising you as the Son of God,
The Promised Messiah for the world’s redemption,
We too, your disciples in this difficult time
Want to follow you and be your friends,
Drawn by the brilliance of your face much desired yet hidden.

Show us, we pray you, your face ever new,
That mirror, mystery laden, of God’s infinite mercy.
Grant that we may contemplate it
With the eyes of our mind and our hearts:
The Son’s face, radiance of the Father’s glory
And the imprint of his Nature (cf. Hb 1:3),
The human face of God that has burst into history
To reveal the horizons of eternity.
The silent face of Jesus suffering and risen,
When loved and accepted changes the heart and life.
“Your face, Lord, do I seek,
Do not hide your face from me” (Ps. 27:8ff).

How many times through the centuries and millennia has not resounded
The ardent invocation of the Psalmist among the faithful!
Lord, with faith, we too repeat the same invocation:
“Man of suffering, as one from whom others hide their faces” (Is. 53:3),
Do not hide your face from us!
We want to draw from your eyes,
That look on us with tenderness and compassion.
The force of love and peace which shows us the way of life,
And the courage to follow you without fear or compromise,
So as to be witnesses of your Gospel,
With concrete signs of acceptance, love and forgiveness.

O Holy Face of Christ,
Light that enlightens the darkness of doubt and sadness,
Life that has defeated forever the force of evil and death,
O inscrutable gaze
That never ceases to watch over men and people,
Face concealed in the Eucharistic signs
And in the faces of those that live with us,
Make us God’s pilgrims in this world,
Longing for the Infinite and ready for the final encounter,
When we shall see you, Lord, “face to face”(1 Cor.13,12),
And be able to contemplate you forever in heavenly Glory.

Mary, Mother of the Holy Face,
Help us have “hands innocent and a heart pure”,
Hands illumined by the truth of love
And hearts enraptured by divine beauty,
That transformed by the encounter with Christ,
We may gift ourselves to the poor and the suffering,
Whose faces reflect the hidden presence
Of your Son Jesus,
Who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen!

Please, as we prepare to enter into the holy season of Lent, take the time to watch this 25-minute video:

You won't regret it.

On Tomorrow's Feast of the Holy Face

From the archives:

The Lord Jesus appeared to Blessed Maria Pierina de Micheli, a nun in the Institute of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception, in 1938 and said to her,

Blessed Maria Pierina de Micheli

Do you see how I suffer? Yet, very few understand me. Those who say they love me are very ungrateful! I have given my heart as the sensible object of my great love to men and I give My Face as the sensible object of my sorrow for all the sins of men. I wish that it be venerated by a special feast on Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. I wish that the feast be preceded by a novena in which the faithful make reparation with me, joining together and sharing in my sorrow.

Two years earlier, Jesus said to her, "I wish that my face, which reflects the deep pains of my soul, the sorrow and love of my heart, be better honored: who contemplates me consoles me."

Wishing to honor the Lord's request that his Holy Face be more widely honored and adored, on April 17, 1958 Blessed Pope Pius XII approved the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus Christ to be observed on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and issued for its liturgical observance the texts of the Votive Mass in Honor of the Holy Face of Jesus Christ.

As I understand it, this votive Mass was initially allowed for particular religious institutes but was later extended for use throughout the Church, through the efforts of Fiorenzo Cardinal Angelini, by Blessed Pope John Paul II.

The face of Jesus

Taking a moment to step back, as it were, to examine the various interweavings of one's own life with the lives of others is an opportunity for great humility, wonder, and gratitude.  Of course, such reflection can rarely be attained purposely; rather, when such a recognition occurs it is most often a result of divine grace.  It was just such an experience that I had yesterday.

The Lord has brought many marvelous people into my life (or, if you like, brought me into theirs), he continues to do so, and he will likely enough continue to do so as the years go on.  As I sit back and think for a moment of the people whom I am privileged to know now and to have met in the past, I am filled with the certainty that I have not met these people - many of whom I am happy to count as dear friends and others whom I have only been around briefly but who have nonetheless taught me something important or brought comfort or laughter to me - by any merit or doing of my own.  It is, rather, simply by the workings of Providence.

One of the priests living with me here at the Casa Santa Maria and I were in the same seminary class together and it is good to be with him.  This friend happened to meet Paul Badde some months ago while visiting the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello (we visited the shrine on Saturday).  As he was leaving, he recognized Badde's face from his books and introduced himself.  Wednesday morning he invited me to join him for coffee with Badde (I had a hot chocolate instead since I cannot tolerate the taste of coffee; the Italians don't quite know what to do with me).

After a delightful conversation about the Holy Face, its discovery and importance, we exchanged contact information and Badde sent several excellent photographs to me; he has very kindly given me to permission to post them here and also obtained permission for me to post a few pictures courtesy of EWTN.

The image of the Holy Face is - together with the Shroud of Turin and the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma of Saint Juan Diego - one of the images not made by the human hands.  No trace of any pigments are found on the fabric woven of mollusk silk, nor is it embroidered onto the fabric.  What is more, both the image and fabric are translucent and the image seems to change depending on the light shone upon it, as the following pictures show.

N.B.: You can click on the photographs to view enlarged versions, which I recommend.

In this first photograph you can see not only the image of the Holy Face, but also the reliquary in which it is housed:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

Here is a detail of the face; notice especially the details of the pupils and even of the teeth:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

With a change of light, other details can be more clearly seen, such as the bruise under the right eye:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

In this next picture, Badde examines the Holy Face in the light of the setting sun.  You can see how transparent both the fabric and the image are but looking Badde's left shoulder:

Photo: EWTN/Alan Holdren

Under this light, the creases on the fabric are clearly visible:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

These next three photographs show what the Holy Face looks like under different lights:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

PHOTO: Paul Badde

PHOTO: Paul Badde

Here again can be seen the transparency of the image:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

Here Alan Holdren takes a look at the Holy Face under the sunlight:

PHOTO: Paul Badde

As you can see from the above photographs, the Holy Face is a most remarkable image, one that I cannot simply get out of my mind.  I have seen the face of Jesus, I have seen the face of God.

If you come to Rome, you simply must plan to take a half a day and visit the shrine at Manoppello; I promise you will not regret it.