Where His Glance Falls

"Today, in a moment of trial, I rediscovered Jesus, or perhaps discovered Him for the first time...His eyes, which are the eyes of Truth, are fixed upon my heart.  Where His glance falls, there is peace:  for the light of His face, which is the Truth, produces truth wherever it shines.  His eyes are always on us in choir and everywhere and in all times.  No grace comes to us from heaven except He looks upon our hearts."   Thomas Merton, Journal, 1950 (excerpt taken from Give Us This Day, January 4, 2020)

Yesterday, I was in a day of trial.  I went to visit my spiritual guide and one phrase he said to me stood out, "You don't need to explain."  We don't need to explain our trials or ourselves.  We only need to surrender them to Jesus.  Merton doesn't explain his trial and we don't need to speculate.  His trial is like ours...it is the universal human struggle. 

Like Merton, I repeatedly experience the gaze of Jesus as a true river of peace flowing within.  Only he calms the storms and only he shows us the truth in any given situation...and the glance of his truth is usually about ourselves.  It is a grace of growing in self-awareness that teaches us to trust like children in his presence for his goodness to wash over the whole of our planet in peril, cleanse it and make it whole.  His truth is hope.

When Pilate and Jesus meet on the journey towards Christ's crucifixion, and Pilate asks him, "What is truth?", he is actively avoiding Jesus' gaze and resisting surrendering himself to the Source of peace, love, mercy, healing and goodness for our world.  To avoid his gaze is to stay in the misery of half-truths, complaining self-pity, and grasping at things that give no joy.  We know this because we've all had a glimpse, if not more, of Pilate's way of being. We only know the truth when we know Jesus....and that truth is Mercy, and freedom of heart.