Eye, gaze

Statue of the Virgin Mary presenting the child Jesus with open arms - Chapel of the Sacramentine Convent in Bollène. Their two gazes are turned toward the world.

If your spiritual eye — that is, your mind — is clear and pure, you see things as they truly are. In this case, you recognize the glorification of the Christ.

In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"

• Be pure. Start with the five senses to move to the seven passions. Start with the eye: the sense of sight is king, it opens the way to the deepest and most complex of hungers. The eye sees the flesh of the Woman and desires the flesh. The eye sees the opulence of the rich and desires gold. The eye sees the power of those who govern and desires power. Have a peaceful, honest, moderate, pure eye, and you will have peaceful, honest, moderate, and pure desires. The purer your eye, the purer your Heart.
  Watch carefully over your eye, eager to discover tempting apples. Be chaste in your gaze if you want to be chaste in your body. If you have the chastity of the flesh, you will have the chastity of riches and power. You will have all chastities and be the friends of God. Do not fear being mocked if you are chaste. Fear only being the Enemies of God.
• It is better to pluck out your eye (Matthew 5:29): "I told you a few days ago to watch your gaze. But you do not know how to do it. I tell you: it would be better to become blind by plucking out eyes full of lusts than to become lustful."
• If your right eye causes you to Scandal, pluck it out: (...) "What is adultery? It is the feverish desire for someone who is not ours. One begins to sin through desire, continues through seduction, completes by persuasion, and the act crowns it all.
  How does it begin? Generally with an impure gaze. And this brings us back to what I said earlier. The impure eye sees what is Hidden from the pure, and through the eye, thirst enters the throat, hunger the body, fever the blood. Thirst, hunger, carnal fever. It is the beginning of delirium. If the other, the person looked at is honest, the delirious one remains alone, turning on burning coals, or if good, may resort to Slander for revenge.
  If she is dishonest, she becomes an accomplice of the gaze, and so begins the descent into sin. Therefore, I say to you: "Whoever looks at a Woman with desire has already committed adultery, for in his thought he has already committed the act he desires. Rather than this, if your right eye causes you to Scandal, pluck it out and cast it away from you. It is better for you to be one-eyed than to fall entirely into infernal Darkness. And if your right hand sins, cut it off and cast it away. It is better for you to have one limb less than to be cast wholly into hell."-
• You have heard that it was said: eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth: "The old saying: 'eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth' is not part of the Ten Commandments, but it was added because man deprived of Grace is so fierce that he only understands vengeance. It is cancelled, yes surely cancelled, by the new word: "Love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you, justify those who slander you, bless those who curse you, do good to those who harm you, be peaceful with the quarrelsome, condescending with those who bother you, willingly helpful to those who ask you (...)"

• Judas speaking of Jesus to his Enemies: "He is like a serpent: he fascinates, you can do nothing once he looks at you. - When he looks at his Enemies: you. For I see that when he looks at those who do not hate him with all their being, like you do, then his gaze moves, makes things happen. Oh! his gaze! Why does he look at me this way and makes me good, I who am a monster to myself, and to you who make me a monster ten times over?!"

In the other works of Maria Valtorta

The Notebooks from 1945 to 1950

• Catechesis of February 18, 1947: If your spiritual eye — that is, your mind — is clear and pure, you see things as they are. In this case, you recognize the glorification of the Christ.