Vultus Christi: The Face of God

That Mysterious Face
This morning the Holy Father announced an exposition of the Sacred Shroud of Turn in the Spring of 2010. The Shroud will be displayed for the general public. “If the Lord gives me life and health,” said the Holy Father, “I too hope to come to contemplate the mysterious Face, which silently speaks to the hearts of humanity, inviting us to recognize the face of God who loved us so much that he gave us his only Son, so that those who believe may have eternal life.” The Holy Father also announced that the year 2010 will be dedicated to the Passion of Christ.
Obedience
Again, the Holy Face: the May 11, 2008 letter on obedience of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is entitled, Faciem Tuam, Domine, Requiram, “It is Thy Face, O Lord, that I Seek.” Here are the first lines of the introduction to the letter.
“Let your Face shine upon us and we shall be saved” (Psalm 79:4)
Consecrated Life as a Witness of the Search for God
1. “Faciem tuam, Domine, requiram”: Your Face, O Lord, I seek (Ps 27:8). A pilgrim seeking the meaning of life, enwrapped in the great mystery that surrounds him, the human person, even if unconsciously, does, in fact, seek the Face of the Lord. “Your ways, O Lord, make known to me, teach me your paths” (Ps 25:4): no one can ever take away from the heart of the human person the search for him of whom the Bible says “He is all” (Sir 43:27) and for the ways of reaching him.
Consecrated life, called to make the characteristic traits of the virginal, poor and obedient Jesus visible, flourishes in the ambience of this search for the Face of the Lord and the ways that lead to him (cf. Jn 14:4-6).