My heart says to me: "Seek his face!" Yes, your face, O Yahweh, I do seek. (Ps 27:8)

We live in a time of the lost face. Man cannot live without the presence of another's face. He cannot see his own face; it is not possible to have a relationship exclusively with one's own face. We have a need for a face that is different from our own. A mirror does not help. In this loss of face - because we have lost the face of God - we have also lost the time we need, the time given to us to find a face. That is why we are constantly in a hurry. Time is needed to gaze upon the face of another. It is extremely important.

In order to find the face anew, we must listen to what the psalmist tells us: my heart says to me. God speaks powerfully to us through our heart. The heart shows us the way towards the face. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas is of interest to us in this search for the face. In his work Totalité et Infini (Totality and Infinity), he argues that at the foundation of the West lies the violence of man against man. He does not accept this violence against the Other. Because I have lost my relationship with the face, my heart warns me: Seek the face. Levinas says: the Other does not proceed from me, he is not my enemy! He comes from outside, and he establishes a relationship. For Levinas, the revelation of the face is the coming of the Other who appears as a face. This face is not an abstraction; it is a living presence; that face is the life of the Other. Levinas writes of the other and his face, of his need and vulnerability, and of my responsibility for that other.

The relationship between faces is visible in a special way within a family. A family arises from the falling in love of the hearts of a man and a woman. That is why my heart says: seek the face. In the beauty of a woman's face, in the features of a man's face, His face is revealed. The heart teaches us that we can discover the face of the other only through the face of Yahweh. Yes, your face, O Yahweh, I do seek. In the Old Testament the word panim - face - appears roughly four hundred times, writes Cardinal Ratzinger in one of his books. How is this possible within a culture that forbids the depiction of images or statues? The God of Israel has a face because he is a person. A person who loves. One who seeks a relationship of love with every human being. Who forgives, who has definitively revealed his face in the face of his beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

In these months of quarantine and a certain confinement, we have been given the opportunity, while remaining in our homes, to discover above all the face of God. While we are surrounded by modern technology, from television to the internet, it is time to begin to seek, as the psalm says. Let us begin to seek the face of God, and at the same time the face of the other. The face of the family. This is not the fruit of our good will or of compulsion. It is a gift. It is the longing of the heart. To discover a relationship with God, who is a person who loves my face. From this a great gift is offered to us: the husband rediscovers the face of his wife. Perhaps it is not as youthful as at the beginning of the marriage. The wife has the opportunity to look deeply into the face of her husband. He was not at home. She could not observe him. It is wonderful when a child sees the face of his father, which instils security, when he sees the face of his mother, full of tenderness and understanding.

This given time is a time for the revelation of the face. If my heart is in a relationship with the Creator, drawing from him the strength of love, then it calls me: seek the face. But I cannot fully understand the face of the other; it remains a mystery, says the philosopher Levinas. It is precisely in that mystery that I discover the merciful and benevolent face of God; the face of the other is, in fact, the face of the Other. The Other is Christ! Then all faces become connected in the face of God and become known to me. We come to know one another. Husband, wife, son, daughter, grandmother, grandfather. Meeting his brother Esau, Jacob expresses his joy in these words: to see your face is like seeing the face of God, such favour have you shown me. The face of God is the source and the image of relationships within the family. The face is relationship and life! The face also has a relationship with eternity. As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with beholding thy form. (Ps 17:15)

It is a gift to be satisfied with the face: the face of husband, of wife. With communion.