The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, 30th May 2022
Pope Francis is very keen on personal encounter and especially on looking someone in the eye: the eyes have it, one might say, for there we read one another’s thoughts and learn to love. We transmit more than we know so it’s a risky business. It’s a way of entering other peoples’ pain as well as joy. It’s where dialogue and relationship begin – and, as Antonio Spodario continues, Pope Francis
confirms it in the preface for that volume (My Word is in your Eyes). His word (that is, the Lord’s Word or the Word as Lord) is in the eyes of the person or people that he has in front of him. That is, it emerges from a dialogue, it is not pre-fabricated.
(Open to God, Open to the World xi)
Or, one could say, Christ, as truth, is already present to us; already within us, waiting to be seen, waiting to be heard, when we encounter one another. So dialogue isn’t about inflicting perceived truths or theories on one another but of allowing the truth which is already within us to emerge and this is a unique encounter to the surprise of both parties, just as with Mary and Elizabeth. A creative word which leads to wonder and a world turned upside down.