Do you want to see God?
It’s probably not something we think about every day, but perhaps it should be. Truthfully, none of us knows when we might have the opportunity to see God. It is reasonable to assume that many of us are not entirely sure whether we are ready for the event. Or maybe many of us wonder just how we are supposed to prepare for this inevitable meeting.
This issue of being prepared to meet God face to face is an important one, and Scripture provides a simple and direct description of what we need to do to prepare ourselves:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)
This leads to the inevitable question then as to whether we ourselves are pure in heart, or whether we are without sin.
Scripture seems to be equally clear on this topic as well.
For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
This is not intended to discourage us, despite the very serious consequences of the reality of sin. We must remember and remain mindful of the fact that the ‘wages of sin is death.’ (Romans 6:23a) - an eternal death. But we can take heart.
For the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23b)
We can also take great consolation in Jesus’ own words on this topic.
Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
So salvation is a gift and our entry into the Kingdom has been promised to us. Yet we all fall short of the glory God intended for us when He created us, and deep down we know our hearts are not entirely pure.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, slanders. (Matthew 15:20)
The point is not to sit and analyze which of these shortcomings we either have or have not been guilty of - we have all sinned, we have all left wounds in the Body of Christ. And Christ Himself made it clear that His standard is much greater than mere obedience to the Law. For example, even if we only look at another person with lust in our heart, we have already committed adultery with that person. (Ref: Matthew 5:28)
But we must also understand that the ultimate consequence of sin is not just the sin itself, but also an interior wound in the soul, affecting both the offended and the offender. We can see the terrible effects of sin in the very events occurring in our world today. Sin is literally a deep spiritual wound that begins in our interior, in our soul, and then is often manifested in our exterior, or in the way we interact with the world around us.
Therefore, we must look to Christ, who Himself was pure of heart. We must seek to gain a deeper understanding of our own need for Christ’s gift of interior healing. The best way to do this is to prayerfully reflect on His Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Many theologians have speculated that during that ordeal Christ was exposed to all the sins that had been, were being, and would be committed against God. The effect of these sins began in His interior spirit - His soul: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” (Matthew 26:38)
But as Christ suffered His passion, these interior wounds in His Spirit were made manifest on His Body. This was done so that we could see the real effects of sin and the wounds they cause, both in the human body and in the human soul.
For “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
So we understand that Christ did not rebel at what was done to Him, but rather He bore our sins and brought about the gift of salvation.
Since we still see the effects of sin all around us, we are left wondering: what, if anything, can we do about the wounds that our own actions may have caused others? How do we participate in helping to heal those wounds created in the Body of Christ?
If God has indeed promised us the Kingdom, then He must also have provided us numerous means for purifying our hearts and readying ourselves to meet Him. This week's prayer reflection offers a suggestion on how each of us can begin to heal those injuries we ourselves may have caused, and to help to heal the larger wounds of our society.
As we know, each of us has our own Guardian Angel. There are numerous references to these helping Angels throughout the Old and the New Testaments.
Matthew 18:10, Daniel 10:21, Psalm 91:11, Acts 12, Hebrews 1:14, Psalms 34:6-7
Our Guardian Angel has been with us from the very moment of our birth and has witnessed all the events of our life - in other words, they know everything. Our Angels are there to help us, they are there to guide us through life and to protect us, but they are also there to help us become the people God intends us to be, and to help us repair any damage we may have caused along the way.
With that understanding, we can pray to our Guardian Angel and ask them to go back over our life and invoke the Holy Spirit to heal, repair and mend any wounds we may have caused in the body of the Church. We can also ask them to bring about healing in the souls of those persons affected by our actions, along with the healing we may need from those same encounters. This is a very powerful form of prayer, and though it may not bring about an immediate reconciliation between any persons we have become estranged from, if we pray with perseverance, this prayer to our Guardian Angel will eventually bring about a healing in both the other person’s and our own souls.
This is especially important in those instances where we may not even be aware of the injury we have caused; our Guardian Angels can do the work of healing without our even having to know.
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:14)
Please take some time this week to pray to your Guardian Angel. Ask that they might begin to mend the wounds left in the souls of others by our weakness and failings. Please also pray that we might have the Grace to find healing and reconciliation for all the hurts and wounds we have all experienced in our own lives.
Copyright ©2025, Deacon Mark Danis
Image credit: “Inspiration of Saint Matthew,” Caravaggio (San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome, Italy), Public domain, via WikiArt