After a life on earth of seeing Jesus “in a mirror dimly” we finally get to see him “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12, ESV). To see someone is to experience them. We want to see Jesus because we want to fully experience who he is. Why do we yearn to see a loved one whom we have been separated from even though we can talk to them on the phone? Because we want to fully experience them. We want to see their expressions, we want to see their reaction to us, we want to feel their presence.
Likewise, we want to see Jesus, who is the human expression of the Father, because we want to see his goodness and the beauty of his perfection. Henry Suso imagines Jesus saying: “All and everything that thou and all men can possibly imagine of form, of elegance, and grace, is in Me far more ravishing than anyone can express.”[1] This vision will leave us in awe.
We want to see how he moves, what he does, how he expresses himself. We want to see his expressions of love for us. We want him to see our expressions of love for him. We want to embrace him. We want to study him, talk with him and absorb his personality. We want to see the majesty of the divine Second Adam who is the fulfillment of all that humans can be and the one through whom and for whom all things were created (Col. 1:16, ESV).
When we see Jesus we will see truth incarnate, for he is the truth (John 14:6). Our understanding of all things will expand exponentially for we will see the realities of God in human form. We say: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully” (1 Cor. 13:12, ESV) because when we see him we will fully experience him which will bring an explosion of knowledge. And so Scripture exclaims that “we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13, NIV)
[1] Henry Suso, Blessed Henry Suso: Collection, Kindle ed. (city?: Aeterna Press, 2016), loc. 645. This quote is from Chapter 7 of Part 1 of The Book of Eternal Wisdom.
