Illumina Domine Blog – Devotion to The Holy Face

Blasphemy against Our Lord now seems to have reached the inverted crescendo of debauchery reflecting the depths of hell in the opening ceremony of the French Olympic’s obscene mockery of the Last Supper of Christ. I cannot stomach repeating a description of the revolting display that was acted out in an anti-christian spirit that perhaps surpassed that of the French Revolution in it’s world-wide scope.

What does blasphemy has to do with the Face of God, and what should be the response of all Christians?

God has a Face and a Holy Name in Jesus Christ. When God became man at the Incarnation, He showed us His human face in Jesus. The Hebrew term “panim” means both to see the Face of God, or to be in His Holy Presence, as well as a term that describes relationship. Through the Face of Jesus we enter into relationship with God. Jesus lets us know the hidden Face of the Father through His human face, by the gift of the Holy Spirit poured into our hearts. Blasphemy is rejecting the tender love God offers to mankind in His Son Jesus, and in effect, attacking and spitting in His Face.

Because of this relationship between God and man — reflected in the name of Jesus and His Holy Face — sins committed against Him cause pain and suffering to His Sacred Heart, and are reflected in the Face of Christ. The manifestation of our sins on His Countenance come about through blasphemy, atheism, disrespect of God in sacred things, the profanation of Sunday, hatred of God’s Church. All of which was demonstrated in the satanic display at the Olympic opening ceremony.

Our relationship with God as it should be is lovingly presented to mankind in the first three of the Ten Commandments that relate to God Himself:

1. I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.
2. THOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.
3. KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY.

According to Catholic Church teaching, the first commands: faith, hope, love and worship of God; reverence for holy things; prayer; and forbids: idolatry; superstition; spiritism; tempting God; sacrilege; and attendance at false worship. The second commands: reverence in speaking about God and holy things; the keeping of oaths and vows. It forbids: blasphemy; the irreverent use of God’s name; speaking disrespectfully of holy things; false oaths and the the breaking of vows. The third commands: going to church on Sundays and holy days of obligation. It forbids missing church through one’s own fault; unnecessary servile work on Sunday and holy days of obligation.

The sins, however, committed by those who do not know God, pale in comparison to the most horrible and destructive blasphemy which has been committed by those who should be closest to the Heart of Jesus, within the Church, who have betrayed Him. All these indignities suffered by Our Lord in His Face represent the most serious sins, because they are against God Himself.

If you would like to console Jesus, uniting to Him in His suffering, our bishops have suggested attending Mass with reverence, as well as spending time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In addition, prayers of reparation may be found clicking the “Prayers” tab. The damage done by the sins of humanity to our precious relationship with God, which are reflected in the Face of Jesus Christ, are in need of repair. For this reason, devotion and reparation to the Holy Face and the Holy Name are fitting in order to make amends for what humanity has done to Him.

“Do you see how I suffer? Yet, very few understand me. Those who say they love me are very ungrateful! I have given my HEART as the sensible object of my great LOVE to men and I give my FACE as the sensible object of my sorrow for the sins of men.” –Words of Our Lord to  Bl. Mother Maria Pierina de Micheli  

The Golden Arrow Prayer, is a prayer given by Our Lord to Sr. Marie St. Pierre, OCD, to be prayed in atonement for the sins of blasphemy against God’s name–As those sins are like a ‘poisoned dart’ continually wounding Our Lord’s Sacred Heart, Sr. Marie St. Pierre saw in a vision that this “Golden Arrow Prayer” had the power to wound His Heart delightfully:

“May the most holy, most adorable, most incomprehensible and ineffable Name of God be forever praised, blessed, loved, adored and glorified in Heaven, on earth, and under the earth, by all the creatures of God, and by the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.”