Meditation for July 21, The Glance of Jesus

Jesus, when quite a little Baby, looked at His Mother; what grace, even then, and what eloquence in that silent conversation of an ordinary Baby with its mother. What a picture! I could dwell upon it a long time--and why not remain there?

Jesus looked at the young man who had come to confide to Him his desires of a perfect life. The Savior, the Gospel tells us, also loved him. See that picture. "Fine, My son, I commend you for your thirst for good." Have I not also received in my life the blessing of a glance from Jesus through His particular predilection--the day I decided my vocation? Let me go back to that blessed moment. That look, that special love of Jesus, it still continues. Each day Our Lord looks upon me and loves me.

Jesus looked on Peter. When Peter brought Andrew to Christ, the Gospel tells us, He looked into the eyes of the Apostle. It was the first of a series of looks Jesus gave Peter; there was a look of love when St. Peter affirmed the divinity of the Savior; a look of displeasure when St. Peter seemed to count upon a post of honor that was purely temporal; a look of reproach in the atrium of the house of Caiphus after the triple denial; a look of pardon after the miraculous draught of fishes at the moment of the triple in­terrogation: Peter lovest thou Me?

Jesus looked on Veronica. He was ascending Calvary; His eyes were veiled with tears, with spittle and with blood...a woman braved the crowd, broke through the hedge of soldiers, wiped the face of the poor Condemned. "Thank you, Veronica! Oh, how grateful I am to you!"

Jesus looked on Magdalen at the home of Simon the Pharisee, at the banquet when he poured perfumes upon Him, wiping His I feet with her hair; at the Cross, when despite His head's suffering from the crown of thoms, the Savior discovered the little group at the foot of the gibbet; at the Tomb when He called Magdalen by her first name, "Mary! Mary!" and she cried out, "Oh, my Good Master! Rabonni!"

And how many other glances Jesus bestowed. I will choose those for meditation which best reveal to me His Divine Face, His Divine Heart.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)