Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter
St. Paul received supernatural visions in which God spoke to him. For example, while he was in Corinth, the Lord spoke to him in a vision “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:9-10). As a result of this vision, St. Paul settled in Corinth for a year and a half.
How should we be affected by St. Paul’s visions of God? Well, how do we respond when a friend today tells us he saw an amazing sight? When he points at a beautiful scene from nature, like an eclipse, or a wild animal, or a flower? Don’t we feel the urge to see what he saw, to find out what fills our friend with such amazement? What could it be? Or, if another friend tells us she just watched the most amazing thirty second video and it changed her life and now she’s changing her residence and workplace for the next year and a half. Wouldn’t be curious to see what it was that she saw?
It’s the same, or, at least, it ought to be, when a great saint sees God. Let us desire to see what St. Paul saw, and to hear what St. Paul heard: God himself. Ignatian spirituality helps us not only to seek the face of God, but also to intensify the desire for it, that is, to actually want to see God’s face. Granted, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “at present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but [in the next life] face to face.” Let us keep looking for God, and let us learn how to want to look. “When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me” (Jeremiah 29:13-14).