Throughout history humanity has always desired to see God's face. This desire was expressed in a variety of ways, such as the making of idols in order to try and visualize God in a more concrete way.
The good news is that God recognized this desire in the human heart and came down upon earth in the person of Jesus Christ, revealing to us his face.
The face of God
Pope Benedict XVI reflected on this spiritual reality in a general audience in 2013:
At Holy Christmas we contemplated the realization of these very promises: the Revelation of God reaching its culmination, its fullness. In Jesus of Nazareth God really visited his people, he visited humanity in a manner that surpassed every expectation: he sent his Only-Begotten Son: God himself became man. Jesus does not tell us something about God, he does not merely speak of the Father but is the Revelation of God, because he is God and thus reveals the face of God.
He continues his reflection by pointing out how this desire to see God's face was present in the Old Testament:
The theme of the “quest for God’s face,” the desire to know this face, the desire to see God as he is, is clearly present throughout the Old Testament, to the extent that the Hebrew term pānîm, which means “face”, recurs 400 times, and refers to God 100 times. One hundred times it refers to God: to the wish to see God’s face is expressed 100 times.
This desire, Pope Benedict XVI explains, is present in all of us and points to a deeper desire to be in friendship with God.
The desire to know God truly, that is, to see God’s face, is innate in every human being, even in atheists. And perhaps we unconsciously have this wish simply to see who he is, what he is, who he is for us. However this desire is fulfilled in following Christ, in this way we see his back and, in the end, we see God too as a friend, in Christ’s face we see his face. The important thing is that we not only follow Christ in our needy moments or when we find a slot in our daily occupations, but in our life as such.
Jesus reveals to us God's face and invites us to follow him. God wants to be with us and to be part of our lives in a more intimate way.
