JOHN DEMPSTER: So much of what’s in our hearts is seen in our eyes
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JESTER, judge, fox, chameleon. The person in Ukranian poet Ivan Malkovych’s poem The Man wears one mask after another, seeking to disguise himself. But he can never deceive his friends because “in every mask is a slit for eyes”.
Well, I for one will be delighted when at last we don’t have to wear masks to protect us from Covid, because I have great difficulty recognising people from their eyes alone.
Yet it’s true that so much of what’s in our hearts is visible in our eyes.
We often, like the person in the poem, put on the masks: pretending to be what we are not in order to “fit in” and cover our own insecurities. And we also, all without knowing it, often see masks rather than reality as we reflect on our lives.
“I’m a failure!” we say, or “I’m the greatest!”
“I’m unlovable! I’m weak! I’m hopeless!” or “I’m entitled!”
Behind these masks lie the lovely, fragile selves we truly are.
We realise that the more at home with ourselves we are – the more healed and whole – the less we’ll hide and the more we’ll be authentic and real in our dealings with ourselves and others.
But when Christians speak of God as the source of healing and wholeness, it doesn’t always help because of the masks we project on the face of God – the mask of implacable anger, or indifference, or absence.
Jesus’s mission, Christians believe, was to call an end both to mask-wearing and to the projecting of masks onto the faces of God and of others.
Jesus shows us God unmasked – not wrath-filled and harsh, but infinitely loving, boundlessly forgiving.
God sees us as we truly are behind the masks, and loves us still.
Father Macritchie was wearing his face covering as per regulations when I attended Ash Wednesday mass at St Michael and All Angels.
As I went forward and stood before him to receive the wafer I saw in his eyes such love, such tenderness. I saw in his eyes the love of Christ for me. For me his eyes became the eyes of Jesus.
Seeing again Christ’s deep love for me, I knew myself healed and whole. No need for hiding, no need for pretence. The masks fell into the gutter as once again I knew the sheer joy of being me.
