EYES
A Lyrical essay Inok Vsevolod (Filipiev)
Every day God looks into our eyes.
Every day He encounters millions of indifferent eyes.
One of these sets of eyes - they are mine...
No, our eyes are not indifferent because of the fact that we are unable to come face to face with the Lord. Every one of us, at least once in our lifetimes, can see God. Every one of us, at least once in our life, comes face to face with the Lord.This sacrament of meeting is unique for every person. But anyone who has lived through an encounter with God can never forget about it.
Millions of eyes and they all look alike.
In the majority of them is rendered a God rejected. Such eyes are dead. They are like fires that have gone out. There is no life in them. There is no light and no love in them. They radiate darkness. They are fussy and lustful, dishonest and greedy, vain and proud. These eyes are not at all capable of erasing the traces of the meeting with God's gaze and so in them is embodied God, rejected. In them is embodied terror, covered by satisfied prosperity or senseless ambivalence to all goings-on.
Other eyes belong to Christians - spirit-bearers and the children of the Bible. When we make eye contact with such people, we feel that through their eyes God himself is looking at us. Sensing the radiant strength of their eyes, we understand that Jesus Christ had eyes such as these. Eyes, which are full of light, are so because they are, in actuality, eyes of the Light. In them is embodied the snow-white radiance of Christ's clothes on Mount Tabor.
If we, having at one time or another met with God's gaze and rejected God, then we will hasten to repent. The loving God will forgive; will look into the soul anew through the eyes, and the soul, turned rocky, rocky like the peak of Mount Tabor, will suddenly shine through with Godly light.Those who do not know where to seek God, let them go to the true Christians, let them go to the saints. Let them come and look into their eyes. And having met with God in these eyes let them light up from the gaze of the saints, like one candle from another.
While the eyes of the saints still illuminate the world, the world will still exist.A single recollection of a once-encountered gaze, shining with holiness, can warm a person's soul for life, can calm and strengthen during any sorrows or tribulations. Remembering such a gaze, one is not afraid of even staring down the barrel of a gun…
Someday, this world will burn up, but the eyes of the holy will not go out. They will merge with the joyous dawn of the Resurrection.Veritable diamond dew, the eyes of the holy will decorate the palaces of sweet, sweet paradise.
Jordanville(Translated from Russian by Andrew Choufrine)