Gazing into the face of Christ

"For the same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the Gnosis of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).

This shining of the face of Christ in the heart may take place in anyone, no matter what religion or wisdom-tradition they practice. It occurs not as a belief but an event, directly experienced. Your heart becomes a manger for the Birth, and a witness to the Mystery of Christmas within. At midnight, which signifies the depth of meditation, your heart beholds a miracle: God revealed in a human being. This revelation cannot be general, it must be intimate and singular and secret. It can only happen to a Person. For God is a Person. God is not just "cosmic consciousness," "non-duality," or "source," but a Thou, as you are a Thou. You gaze into God's face, as a mother gazes upon her child.

This divinely human gaze flows within, from the core of your soul into an even deeper core, which is the ground of the Spirit in you, nearer than you are to yourself. From this ground you are breathed. And when you return to this ground, and plant your gaze here, your heart will magnetize all creation, and unite the world to you, as a flower is united with its fragrance.

Now this inward Nativity is not known through the intellect, for the intellect is too dense and crude. It must be known through the spiritual body, savored and touched and seen by spiritual senses, just as material pleasures are tasted by the physical senses. For you have a subtle body made of the very substance of divine Glory, which can "taste and see that the Lord is good," as the Psalmist sings.

When you sink into the beholding of Christ's face, through the gaze of Mary, in the manger of your heart, the splendor that irradiates your spiritual body permeates your physical body as well. For the spiritual and physical are one continuum of energy, extending from the subtle to the solid, the boundless to the particular. And this overflowing of Love's divine gaze nourishes the earth as well as the soul, healing many other bodies all around you with the light of your joy.


Mural of Christ Child by Fra Angelic, San Marco, Milan