By The Traveling Troubadour

Word Count: 705

Rating: G (suitable for all audiences)

Summary: A reflection on the eyes of Christ for Divine Mercy Sunday.

Authors Note: This image of the crowned head of Our Lord hangs in the entrance of the Stone Church of the Madonna on the Hill in Fort Lee, NJ built in 1854 where our family members were parishioners for generations. The photograph was taken on the day of my mother’s Requiem Mass. It is a remembrance of seeing “Through Those Eyes”…

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      Through Those Eyes… 

     He peers deep into our hearts and souls, transcending the barriers of time and place, gazing far beyond this merciless world of flesh and blood that put Him on that torturous tree… 

    He looks lovingly down upon us and speaks softly in tones that echo throughout our beings of a world to come where He will rise again as the “Prince of Peace”; yet now He wears a crown of thorns upon His Sacred Head and bears the marks of scourge and nail and the thrust of the mortal piercing lance! 

   He exudes His all-merciful compassion and extends His limitless forgiveness to those truly repentant ones who humbly kneel at the foot of the cross with folded hands and heads bowed low, shedding tears of remorse, as well as those who are sadly unmoved by His excruciating sacrificial agony… 

   He sees into our mind’s eye and reads our thoughts, knowing our every intention and what we have done throughout our lives implementing His gracious gift of Free Will; then in that final hour He balances our deeds with His Scales of Justice and Mercy, transforming the resistance of the multitudes of unconverted at a single glance!  

     Through Those Eyes…             

     He views our human nature with a sympathetic understanding, knowing well our blindness in the face of the devil’s deceptions, not judging us by our fragility of character but by our sincerity in the struggle against evil and how best to give Him the full measure of our trust without hesitation…

      He assists us with His divine direction to pursue the virtue of patience and endure the weight of our cross by infusing His comforting flame of hope within us to illuminate the dark night of the soul, knowing the depth of mankind’s weaknesses, wants, and needs.

      He shrouds us in His luminous veil of paternal protection that shields us from the biting winds of temptation and deflects the rays of sin that leave us spiritually parched like the heat of the desert sun’s penetration…

      He will shower you with blessings as His cup runneth over with kindness and charity, quenching our thirst for redemption and offering us the Keys to His Kingdom’s Garden where fountains of grace flow and water the flowers of faith’s flourishing seeds!

      Through Those Eyes…

       He has inspired countless volumes of parchment pages throughout the centuries that have been entered unto the jeweled books of Sacred Scripture by the steady hands of the Holy Monks and Scribes; and from time immortal His Words of  Wisdom have been written on the hearts of man and engraved in stone…   

     He reflects the translucent windows of that majestic view that both prophets and peasants longed to behold, and invites us to His glorious home where he awaits us with open arms in a celebration of everlasting love and eternal life where he reigns supreme…

He projects the image as the Good Shepard who carries helpless lambs and holds high his staff and lantern casting a golden glow that gently shows the way to the path of righteousness through the Gates of Paradise where green pastures lie, and we will dwell with Him in the House of The Lord where He is seated upon his Heavenly throne…    

      He will embrace you with His abounding warmth and rest your cold and weary soul that has been walking the endless road, and you will be accompanied by the angelic hosts on high, bowing reverently in the presence of the King of Kings in the most magnificent palace ever to be seen, flanked by Joseph The  Protector and Mary His Queen!  

      Through Those Eyes…  

    Shines the Light of Divine Mercy Incarnate, who is looking deeply within your heart and soul at this very moment…and patiently waiting for you to come to Him for His Divine comfort and compassion in this world and hereafter!