Eyes of the Heart

The Body of Christ teaches us to cry out: “O Lord enlighten the eyes of my heart.” We pray thus because the transformation of our being is founded in the enlightenment of the eyes of our heart. With the heart we begin to behold Christ in truth, and by seeing Christ we begin to partake of Him. Spiritual sight is not a passive observation, but it is a dynamic participation. In beholding Christ we partake of Him and our souls are healed. This is the goal of the Christian life.

Our Lord has said: “What is a man profited, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his soul” (Mat. 16:26). Too many times we let the eye of the soul become darkened by the darkness of this world andthe man made philosophies that aggressively seek to take the place of our Lord Jesus Christ. We become weighed down by the cares of this world “what shall we eat, or what shall we wear,” or we become fearful to live the foolishness of the Gospel, desiring instead to look wise in the eyes of others. St. Paul tells us that the Gospel vision “is foolishness to the gentiles” (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18, 23). Those whose eyes have been opened, and who gaze upon the unending day, must be prepared to suffer ridicule from those that have yet to see.

It is for spiritual blindness that Christ the Lord rebukes the pharisees, calling them blind guides. They refused to receive the revelation of God through Christ; instead, they insisted on dwelling in their own philosophies and ideas (cloaked in lofty rhetoric about God), preferring their own dark reason to the Light of revelation in Christ. By doing so they created their own god, and refused the revelation of the True God. (How many systems today are founded on mankind's preference to have a god that is suitable to his standards, opinion and likes?) To have the eyes of the heart opened there must be repentance, purification and transformation. We must be willing, as the Gospel says, to lose our life. We no longer live for ourselves but for God, and through Him for the life and salvation of the world - that all mankind may know the Truth and be set free. When our eyes are opened, the facades that we have been hiding behind are revealed. It is a hard thing to find that we may have been focusing on washing only the outside of ourselves, while inside we still hide in darkness; it is not an easy thing to come to the purifying fire of God. But, to this we are called. Only by giving our hearts to the smelter pot of the Spirit can they be made into temples of the most Holy Trinity.

When the Holy Trinity comes mankind is illumined. Jesus Christ said “I am the Light of the world He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). By gazing on Christ, the eyes of the soul are no longer distracted by this world, nor infatuated by falsehood. Yet, those who have their gaze set on this world and its desires cannot know the Holy Spirit; their eyes are not filled with the light of life. By keeping our hearts steadfast on Christ we love Him the more, we see through Him Who is Truth, and become like our Lord. Vision is transformation. Elder Porphyrios says: “Christ is Joy, the true light, happiness. Christ is hope. Our relation to Christ is love, eros, passion, enthusiasm, longing for the divine. Christ is everything. He is our love. He is the object of our desire … This is our religion: for our soul to awake and love Christ and become holy, to give herself over to divine love, and so He, too, will love her.” Spiritual sight produces Divine love, which is a deep longing for Christ Jesus. St. Silouan the Athonite speaking of love for Christ says: “My soul yearns after the Lord and I seek Him with tears. How could I do other than seek Thee, for Thou first didst seek and find me, and gavest me to delight in Thy Holy Spirit, and my soul fell to loving Thee.”

What person truly beholding the God-Man Jesus Christ cannot but love Him?

The vision of Christ is given by and in the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit sinners are made holy, cowards become brave, and the proud hard heart is turned humble, soft and pliable. It is by the Holy Spirit that all things are made new for us. In Him we truly see. Through Him we partake of the Father and the Son. In Him we are made His children by adoption. He is the seal of our salvation, the guarantee of our inheritance (cf. Eph. 1:13-14). Through Him we set our eyes on the Heavenly realm, where our true home is. Through Him we are change from glory to glory, our hearts being renewed by the uncreated energy of God. By Him we are made into the image and likeness of Christ Jesus our Lord. Speaking of the transformation of those who have the eyes of their heart opened, St Symeon the New Theologion says: “For being dead, we were raised to life; corruptible, we are made over into incorruption; mortal and we are changed over to immortality; earthly, and we are become heavenly; fleshly and possessing our birth from the flesh, we are become spiritual, are reborn and created new by the Holy Spirit.”

The goal of everything the God-Man Jesus Christ did, His incarnation, death, resurrection on the third day and ascension into heaven, is to open the eyes of our hearts that we may communion with Him, the Father and the Holy Spirit. By acquiring clear spiritual sight, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are healed and united to God. Malady is perceived; darkness is dispersed. Divine Light is the vision that makes reality evident. Christ came that mankind might have life, and life most abundantly; that we may be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, this is what having the eyes of our heart illumined means. Our hearts are to become a pure mirror reflecting the Light of Christ, thus we become lights on a hill, lamps that are burning in the darkness. Therefore, Christ Jesus tells us “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Mat. 5:14).