Gaze upon this mirror
each day
and continually study
your face within it,
that you may adorn yourself within and without
with beautiful robes...
These
words were not written by a modern fashion designer but by a medieval
mystic, St. Clare of Assisi .
Secular cosmeticians refer their clients to
large, shiny mirrors. The Lady Clare bids us to look to the
Mirror
without spot who is Christ. She
concludes her unique directive with the goal of this beholding: that
you
may be
covered with the flowers and garments of all the virtues.
Medieval
spiritual authors often made use of the image of the mirror when writing of
the stages of contemplative transformation.
St. Clare adds a distinctively feminine
touch to her use of this image, a use which is also decidedly Christological
and utterly practical in character.
Knowing
that
now we see through a mirror darkly
1 Cor. 13:12, the Seraphic Mother
urges her followers to look at the Divine Mirror
DAILY.
Most people include in their morning
routine at least a glance at the mirror.
Models, actors and ballerinas make it part
of their professional lives. How much more should we who have put on Christ
in Baptism look many times daily into the
Mirror
without spot!
The
invitation to
Gaze upon
this mirror EACH DAY
reminds us
also that acquiring the virtues which make us Christ-like is an on-going
challenge for fallen human nature.
We NEED this daily contact with Christ in
prayer -- whether private or liturgical, in the depths of one’s heart or in
the silence of an adoration chapel -- in order to see HOW the virtues were
operative in Jesus’ earthly life and to allow them to penetrate into our own
lives.
Then
this gazing must be
DELIBERATE.
In order to
continually
study our faces within
the
Christ-Mirror, we must (as St. Clare says elsewhere),
PLACE our
minds before the mirror of eternity.
We need to come to our Lord in
prayer freely, willingly and with determination.
Otherwise, we risk being
like those
looking at their faces in a mirror: who look and go away, forgetting what
they looked like. cf.
James 1:23-24
Deliberate, continual studying of the
face of the soul in the Mirror who is Christ both impresses the image of the
Beloved in our minds and hearts, and challenges us to become what we have
beheld.
Finally,
the Lady Clare exhorts us to look
DEEPLY
into this Mirror.
Medieval mirrors were convex and had only a
limited space where the image was clearly reflected.
It took time and effort to find those
spaces.
It is the same when we look into the
Mirror
without spot.
Quick, superficial or passing glances will
not yield in-depth penetration of His mysteries nor open the soul to a truly
contemplative encounter with the Son of the living God.
St. Clare tells us that beholding the true
reflection of
blessed
poverty, holy humility and ineffable charity
can only be done
with the
grace of God.
This
is a great consolation.
We are not left alone with our weaknesses
and distractions.
God, who placed in our hearts the desire to
behold His Son, will grant us the strength, focus, and patience needed to
look on Jesus daily, determinedly, deeply, until one day we too are robed
with the beautiful garments of the virtues of Him whom St. Clare extols as
the
brightness of eternal glory, the splendor of eternal light and the MIRROR
WITHOUT SPOT.
