Dare to see the face of God…and live!

Q: Archbishop J, who can see the face of God and live?

The request to see the face of God is denied in the Old Testament. In Exodus 33:20, during a very intimate conversation with Moses, God says: “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

Moses

Moses wanted God to accompany the people on their journey. The dialogue is that of two intimate friends. Moses wants more from God: he desires that God journey with His people, every step of the way, not just lead from afar. Boldly, Moses asks God: “Show me your glory.” This is as daring as any human has ever been with God.

The response from God is shocking. God complies: “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, ‘the Lord’, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But, “he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Ex 33:19–20).

We sometimes think of the God of the Old Testament as hard and unmerciful. Here in the centre of God’s revelation to Moses is mercy and compassion. But still, Moses cannot see God’s face.

The text continues, with tenderness: “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen” (Ex 33: 21–23).

God allowed Moses to see His glory but not His face. The tone of their conversation is instructive: Moses is bold and keeps asking for more of God: a deeper relationship, deeper revelation, deeper intermarry. And God complies. This is a great model of friendship and conversation for us, in our relationship with God. We must dare to give more and to ask more. Do you dare?

The prohibition

The prohibition on seeing the face of God comes only after the Fall. In the garden, Adam and Eve saw God face to face, and lived. In Genesis 3:8–9, God comes to the garden in the cool of the evening to walk with Adam and Eve. It was the humans who hid from God. Before sin, we had full disclosure with God and each other. After sin, we hide from God and each other.

The prohibition might be because we cannot handle it. We were created for intimacy with God—to see the face of God and live. Sin frustrated God’s design. But those who choose, through grace, to become God’s friends are brought, as far as they can, into the intimacy that God intended from the beginning.

Jacob wrestled with God and got a blessing from God and says: “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (Gen 32:30). Jacob only realises it was God at the end. So, he did not see the glory of God that Moses saw. He saw a manifestation of God and not the reality of God’s glory.

Elijah also has an encounter with God on Mt Horeb. He was at his lowest ebb, fleeing from Jezebel, when God allowed His glory to pass by him (1 Kings 19:11ff). After the encounter, Elijah goes back to his mission with courage and boldness.

God gives the encounter to those who need it for the mission. Each person who has had a profound encounter, also has a profound mission. The intimacy with God grew faith which enabled fidelity for the mission.

Seeing the Face of God

I believe the first human to see the face of God and live is the midwife and St Joseph—as simple as that. Mary was giving birth so she would not have seen baby Jesus’ face until after the birth was complete. Who else was in the stable? Joseph and the midwife.

St Paul, in his letter to the Colossians makes a dramatic claim. He says: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God … For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:15. 19, 20). If Jesus is the icon (image) of the invisible God, to look on the face of Jesus is to look on the face of God.

Each time Joseph held Jesus in his arms, or changed Him, or put Him to sleep, he looked on, contemplated the face of God, and he lived. We do not often see St Joseph as a mystic, but he was—and more than a mystic. He lived with the presence of God in his house and each day he gazed on the face of God.

The Bible does not tell us much about St Joseph. We know he was a man of the Torah—a righteous man. We know that what Jacob, Moses, Elijah, and others were not able to do, St Joseph achieved.

The Gospel of John says: “We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will” (Jn 9:31). What we know about St Joseph is that he did God’s will (cf. Mt 1:24; 2:14).

Every time we come to the Eucharist, we gaze upon God. Every time we go to a Blessed Sacrament chapel, we gaze upon God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1374, says: “The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is unique.” It adds: “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained’… it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God, and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present.”

To go to an adoration chapel and spend some time, to go to Mass and be fully conscious and active is to have more than Moses had, more than Elijah, Jacob or any of the ancients had. It is to live the mystery that Joseph lived and to contemplate the face of God and live.

This contemplation requires us to do as Joseph and Moses did; it requires us to be obedient to God’s call and His vocation in our life. Then, like Moses, we can dare to beseech God to give you more of Himself; to lead you to deeper faith in Him and relationship with Him.

Key Message:

You can see the face of God and live. Look through faith and not by sight.

Action Step:

Ask God to show you His face, to uncover His face to you. Spend time in Mass or before the Blessed Sacrament seeking this. Make a habit of it.

Scripture Reading:

Hebrews 1:1–4