Look at Me
adapted from a sermon by Fr Louka Sidarous
The Lord is saying to us, “This is Me; All you need to do is to look at Me, crucified and dying for you. Look at My Passion and My wounds; Look at Me”. Is this a hard thing, dear children?”
It is the easiest of things, just to look. The Lord did not ask for anything more but to look – the simplest of tasks. Sometimes we think otherwise – We might think “So what? What is it to look to the Cross, to the Passion of Christ? What is this? This is nothing, I gain nothing”.
But please, go back to the Children of Israel when they travelled through the wilderness around the land of Edom, and they will teach you. Those who didn’t look to the bronze serpent – they died. But what of their salvation? It was the simplest thing: Just to look, to look in faith. Look sincerely, and you will receive everything.
Simply, you will receive life – Life in Christ.
There is no need to complicate matters. Some of us might say “I have a lot of problems in my life. My problems are very deep, very complicated and I am suffering”.
Just look. Do nothing but look to Christ. He is the Saviour. What about the problems here inside me? It is like the poison that ran through the veins of the Children of Israel – Death was my poison, but my salvation is to look to Christ. He will perform the miracle, and the Life of Christ will enter our being. The Lord Christ explained this in a simple picture in front of Nicodemus. He said to this old man Nicodemus that “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”, and so Nicodemus became a disciple of Christ.
You know the right-hand thief – what did he do to be saved? He did nothing. Death was upon him, and he was suffering, but he looked to Christ. That’s all. And he asked, “remember me, O Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom” and the Lord answered “This day, you will be with me in paradise”.
This. day.
The right-hand thief did nothing except look to Christ. Believe this thing – to look at him. The Lord put everything to the greatness of our faith but expressed this in the simplest form ever. I need the life of Christ in me. I need to feel that Christ is here. I need to feel Him. I need to be in Him. I need to have the conviction that He is in here. And He put it in the simplest form ever – what is this simple form?
The Eucharist, the great mystery. And what is the substance of this form? The Orbana – bread to eat, the simplest food. The whole thing, Christ Himself, my Creator, the abundance of the grace of the Lord, the forgiveness of sins, in what form? The simplest and most basic form; Food and drink. Easy.
Be assured that in Christianity there are no complications. Christianity is simple. When the Lord came into our world, he became a man, a very simple Child in a manger. And He, when He was incarnated, taking the form of a very simple Man, walked in common fields, wearing simple common garments, speaking to commoners, speaking to anybody – no security, no army, no police force. You don’t have to have an appointment to meet with Him. Just look.