An old man used to sit for long periods in his parish church gazing intently at the altar. One day the parish priest approached him and asked if something was troubling him, suggesting that perhaps he might help. The man replied, “No Father, I am not troubled, I am simply looking at Him and he is looking at me.”

Pope John II recommended that we ponder the face of Christ as it is revealed in the four Gospels. The strange thing is that the Gospels tell us nothing about his appearance; they leave us free to imagine how he looked. If we are asked what the face of Christ looked like, we tend to think of paintings and statues of Jesus we have all seen. We have these pictures in our mind as we ponder Jesus in the Gospels, the mysteries of the Rosary and the Stations of the Cross. But we can look at the good people who have influenced our lives, our parents, our spouses, our children, friends and neighbours. Those who gave of their kindness, generosity, wisdom and their faithfulness in good times and in bad.

When we look into their faces and see their love and understanding, then, we are seeing the love and understanding of Christ himself.