If the soul will fix its eyes heavenward on its head, who is Christ, as Paul urges, it will have to be regarded as blest through its keenness of vision, because it has its eyes where there is no obscurity of evil. The great apostle Paul, and others if there are any equal to him, had his eyes on the head; so also do all those who live and move and are in Christ.
Just as it cannot happen that the person who is in the light sees darkness, so it cannot happen that the one who has eyes on Christ will fix them on something lacking value. Hence, the person who has eyes fixed on the head--and by head we mean the principle of all things--has eyes on every virtue (indeed, Christ is the perfect virtue, and absolute in every way), on truth, justice, incorruptibility, and every good work. "The wise person has his eyes on the head, but the fool walks in darkness." Indeed, the person who does not place a lamp on the lampstand but places it under a bushel basket makes darkness take the place of light (from Sermon 5 on Ecclesiastes; cited in Wright, Readings for the Daily Office from the Early Church).
04 June 2008
Fix Your Eyes on Jesus
Here's a great quote from St. Gregory of Nyssa on fixing our eyes on our head, Jesus Christ:
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Is this the Jesus statue from Temple Square in Salt Lake City? It looks like the background of the room it is in.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I do not know. I merely grabbed it off the Internet and I did not notice a location mentioned at that particular site. I chose it simply because it gives the effect of looking up to Jesus, as the quote from Gregory of Nyssa discusses.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I should have added, if that's the actual location, I hope it does not detract from the quote or the correlation with the quote!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was. It doesn't look bad there, but it is pretty freaky in person, not to mention it is the the only time I've ever seen Jesus depicted in a toga.
ReplyDeleteGlad you removed it. I always got the heebie Jeebies at the temple. Besides, I never got my free book that the missionaries were going to bring me after I put in the comments section of the form that I was praying for their "church" body, that they would find the true Christ someday.
My apologies to one and all for posting that picture without first checking where it came from. Guess that's what I get for merely looking for images on Google, and then slapping them on the blog! I'll definitely work on improving my "technique" so as not to cause unnecessary and unintentional stumbling.
ReplyDeleteI truly appreciate folks pointing out the true source of the former picture!
Cool blog.
ReplyDeletePlease visit "Liturgy"
www.liturgy.co.nz
and consider linking.
Blessings