IntroductionThis reflection is inspired by the second part of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter, *Novo Millennio Ineunte* (nn. 16-28): “A face to contemplate.” In particular, we keep present the following text:

«The documents of our time, perhaps not always consciously, demand from the faithful of today not only to ‘speak’ of Christ, but, in a certain sense, to ‘make him seen’. To full contemplation of the Lord’s face, we do not have recourse only to our own strength, but allow ourselves to be taken by hand by grace. Only the experience of silence and prayer offers the appropriate horizon in which the knowledge of that mystery can mature and develop, a knowledge that is truer, more adherent and more coherent, and which finds its expression in the solemn proclamation of the Gospel by the Evangelist John: ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14), (Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter *Novo Millennio Ineunte* nn. 16 and 20).»

I wish to demonstrate that, in the mystery of the Incarnation, the Word of God, after assuming a human face in the womb of Mary, gives a new face, above all, to the Mother, and through her and with her, to every human being. Therefore, at the Final Judgment, Jesus will tell us: ‘Whenever you did these things to one of these least of my brothers, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25:40, 45).

Let us develop the theme with four reflections: on the symbolism of the face, on the truth of Jesus’ face, on the transformation of Mary’s face, Mother of Jesus, and on Mary’s face in individual imagination and in contemporary culture, dominated by the visual.

The Symbolism of the Face

The face is the visible and personal identity of every human being; it is a ‘3×4 photo’ of recognition. It concentrates all the body’s external senses, including touch, which is particularly present on the lips. The face, seen from the front, has a physical meaning, even before a psychological and spiritual one. Indeed, if we exclude the opening at the base of the skull, which allows the passage of the spinal cord, all the other openings are frontal and lateral. Through these pass the cranial nerves and blood vessels related to the sensory organs. The openings for the optic nerves serve sight, the ethmoid bone serves smell, the auditory canals serve hearing, and the lateral openings serve taste. This anatomical configuration of the face justifies the particular significance of frontalness, which joins the most expressive parts of the body: the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and lips.

It is understood, then, why the forehead is the symbol of wisdom in iconography throughout all eras, and why art has liked to give wide foreheads to the faces of the learned and the wise. A curious detail: the nose, which seems to descend from the forehead to divide the face into two, is often taken as a unit of measurement in modular anthropology. And according to some iconographers, the nose on Jesus’ face would be a symbol of the Incarnation of God, because it joins what is most spiritual (the eyes) to what is most sensitive (the mouth), and thus, with the eyebrows, forms the sign of the cross.The most aesthetic, most spiritual senses are sight and hearing, the eyes and ears. Face and voice, light and sound constitute the privileged field of our experience. The eyes and ears, moreover, are integral parts of our face and dispose it frontally towards what we see or hear. And this frontal aspect of the face also expresses the vulnerability of our person, because the eyes can be covered, but not lie, and the ears cannot be sealed to sounds. The person cannot help revealing themselves in seeing and cannot help being affected in hearing. Now, over this psychophysical fabric, sight and hearing perform for the spirit as two openings to the totality of reality. And to use them, the gaze must expose itself to it and run the risk of being hurt and of hurting. This risk becomes high when sight becomes gazing and sound becomes word. However, this risk is more easily overcome if gazing and listening are carried out complementarily: “Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and to hear what you hear, and did not see it, and did not hear it” (Mt 13:16-17).The eyes are the bodily opening of our spirit. That is why they are able to see and “speak,” to gaze and to give. In a certain sense, the eye is the whole face: the iris recapitulates the eye, the eye, with the eyelids and eyebrows, recapitulates the face, the face recapitulates the body, as the body recapitulates the entire universe. When the eyes receive light, they illuminate the face: “If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is sick, your whole body will be in darkness” (Mt 6:22-23). And this in a physical and spiritual sense. It would seem that the eyes radiate their own light. Just as sunlight allows things to be seen, so the luminosity of the eyes allows things to be interpreted and to acquire a meaning for us.Therefore, gazing reveals the thoughts of the heart, that interpretation of reality from which depends our relationship with the world of things and people.We can therefore say that offerings express the person in their inner truth, for the altar is lit precisely by this spiritual interiority, becoming the organic translation of the intentionality of the personal self: “in the offering, the altar is the place of the greatest nakedness before the infinite,” (O. Clément, *Il volto interiore*, Jaca Book, Milano 1978, 44). The altar contains everything of a person, both the positive and negative, their expectations and their disillusionments. Thus, there is the vivifying and pure altar that radiates vitality and joy, the altar of the fully realized individual or the saint, which is all reception, positive presence, silent transparency. There is also the unfaithful and frozen altar, like death, that expresses insatiable greed. Existentialist philosophers speak of the altar that petrifies and robs the world, where the movement of the face is reversed: no longer from above to below, the celestial that illuminates the terrestrial, but from below to above, the terrestrial that extinguishes the celestial.Perceiving is offering, and grasping an offering is not perceiving an object-offering in the world (unless that offering is directed towards us), but recognizing that we are offered. The altar, which the offerings, whatever they may be, reveal, refers me purely to myself. What I feel when I hear the rustling of branches behind me is not that someone is present, but that I am vulnerable, that I possess a body that can be wounded, that I occupy a space, and that I cannot escape from the space where I am without defense. In short, that I am seen. Thus, the altar is primarily an intermediary that refers me back to myself. It is shame or pride that reveal the exalted altar and myself at the limit of the altar. They make me live, not happen, the situation of being offered. Shame is shame of oneself, it is the recollection of the fact that I am, precisely, the object that another offers and judges. I cannot feel shame unless I have false freedom to the extent that it escapes to become an object given. Originally, the bond of false consciousness with my offered self is not a bond of occurrence, but of being. I am, beyond any occurrence, that self that another occurs. And that self that I am, I am in a world from which another has expropriated me. (cf. J.-P. Sartre, *L’être et le néant*, Il Saggiatore, Milano 1972, 328.331).On the face, the individual marks the stages of their life, from birth to death: the serenity or traumas of childhood, the vicissitudes of adolescence, the adventures or audacities of youth, the pauses of adulthood, and the meditations of old age. However, the most marked transformations that the face of each age can assume come from tears and laughter.Tears speak of what is not given to the inevitable, they express the strength of the weak, they show a life stronger than death and a love that overcomes hatred. A smile translates on a face a confident gesture, a bold proposal of communion, a resolute will to begin anew. Often a smile or a tear unlock a relationship that a river of words could not.Similarly, the face uses its ears, capable of a reflection denied to the blind. The ears, in fact, hear and can hear themselves, while the eyes see, but cannot see themselves. The first sounds that hearing captures are the ones from one’s own body signaling life. And this phenomenon leads us to reflect on how the face emits sounds and speaks. The word is a articulated sound laden with meaning. Therefore, to speak, as to produce a sign or a sequence of signs, requires an effort, the emission of sounds. It is the same effort we use to try to communicate.It is in interpersonal communication that the face and listening, the image and the word, meet and are realized in their fullness of meaning. And the full meaning of the image is that the face expresses the person in their inner truth, for the face is lit up precisely by this spiritual interiority, in order to become the organic translation of the intentionality of the personal self: “In the face, the face is the place of the greatest nakedness before the infinite,” (O. Clément, *Il volto interiore*, Jaca Book, Milano 1978, 44).And if the word is sound, its “light” is music. In the liturgical action, “the interior music to the word and the interior light to the image explode, in a flash of light, the aesthetic beauty and indicate the ineffable of the Spirit that incessantly descends and remains upon Christ and his ecclesial body,” (O. Clément, *I visionari: saggio sul superamento del nictilismo*, Jaca Book, Milano 1987, 223).The Face of JesusIn Jesus’ face, we can discover the beauty and dignity of the face of the face-bearer. Through the Incarnation, God gives himself a human face so that the face-bearer (imago Dei) can find its true face (similitudo Dei).Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary, makes God visible in the flesh, in all his person and his history. However, the face realizes, as for every face-bearer, the privileged expression of his personality and, therefore, also of his divinity, for in him “resides the full nature of God” (Col 2:9). For this reason, often iconodules quote Jesus’ response to Philip who asked him to show them the Father: “Philip, I have been with you for a long time, and yet you do not know me. Whoever sees me sees the Father” (Jn 14:8-9). According to this way of understanding, we can affirm that Jesus’ face is the face of God.He who cannot be contained by the heavens dwelt in a body of flesh when the Word of God took form in Mary’s womb. The Sunday of Orthodoxy in the Byzantine liturgical year prays thus:«The inexpressible Word of the Father became expressive when He was incarnate in you, O Mother of God. And having restored to its former dignity the human image distorted by sin, He united it to divine beauty!»Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s revelation and gift, for in Him God takes on a face to be seen and a voice to be heard.«In Jesus’ face, we see foreshadowed the assumption of all humanity and the universe […] The Word dwelt in all through one, so that from the only true Son of God, this dignity might pass to all humanity through the sanctifying Spirit», (O. Clément, *Il volto interiore*, Jaca Book, Milano 1978, 30).During His earthly life, in the episode of the Transfiguration, with the sound of His voice and the light of His face, Jesus radiated a dazzling and divine effulgence of the vital energy of the first and only day of creation (cf. Gn 1,5).All Christian sacred art finds precisely in the Transfiguration of Jesus the beauty that gives it existence. Since the earliest centuries, Christians sought to recreate Christ’s face. However, often they did so symbolically, using features taken from pagan gods to emphasize certain essential aspects of His personality. Only in the 4th century did a typology of His face emerge: a frontal view framed by a circle, a part-divided hairline, deep superciliary arches, a long nose bridge, sharp pointed mustaches pointing downwards, a bifurcated beard not too thick. We remember the *Bust of Christ between the Alpha and Omega* in the Catacombs of Commodilla and *Christ on the Throne between Saints Peter and Paul* in the Catacombs of Saints Peter and Marcelino in Rome.Now, this typology of Jesus’ face seems to echo the face typology of the figure on the Shroud of Turin, of which sindonologists have identified the following distinctive features.

– A diagonal across the forehead – A space bounded on three sides, between the superciliary arches, in the shape of a V – A second V-shaped form where the nose ends – The right eyebrow, in relation to the viewer, higher than the other – Prominent cheekbones – The left nostril, in relation to the viewer, wider than the right – A well-marked line between the nose and upper lip – And another identical line between the lower lip and beard – A closed and slightly protruding mouth – A beard with two points – A diagonal line across the throat – Large, wide-open eyes reminiscent of an owl’s – Two tufts of hair that descend from the top of the forehead

These facial features of the Shroud are found, all or almost all, in the faces of Christ, particularly from the 6th century onwards, a fact difficult to explain as mere fantasy or pure coincidence. Indeed, many recent studies in this field tend to unify the face of the Mandylion of Edessa (cf. Patrologia Grega CXIII, 423-454) with the face of the Shroud of Turin, sometimes even identifying them. It is, however, certain that the face of Jesus on the Shroud of Genoa, preserved in the church of St. Bartholomew of the Armenians,

«corresponds exactly to the dimensions of the face of Christ on the Shroud of Turin and that the proportions between the various parts of the two faces, i.e., facial anthropometric measurements, remain exactly constant». (G. Ciliberti, Il Santo Sudario e la ctiesa di S. Bartolomeo degli ArmeniPadri Barnabiti, Genoa 1987, 12).

Therefore, it seems justified to speak of a typology of Jesus’ face or a «canonical face» that determines, to a greater or lesser extent, future representations of Christ, including those inculturated, whose traits have been adapted to various racial groups. Thus, Jesus’ face, easily recognizable, became a Byzantine or Roman face, Spanish or Arab, Germanic or Slavic:

«Jesus’ face constitutes, therefore, «the common face» of humanity: a face among faces. Not because it eliminates the others to replace them, but because its radiation penetrates them, making them transparent to its own light, to its secret incandescence, which is that of the Spirit. When we are in the presence of a being of goodness, peace, blessing, we feel that he envelops us, embraces us within himself, associates us with the immensity that springs from him. The more, then, to be in the presence of Jesus means to be in him. His face is not a boundary or a magic that fascinates, it is an opening of light, in which separation is abolished and difference is confirmed. Jesus does not compete.»In this opening, in this light that it conveys, we discover the true face of the other, freed from masks, reunited, the secret of a person and, at the same time, the place of God. All races, all cultures, all forms of worship find their space and ultimate meaning in this opening. The face of Christ in the icons, earth color mixed with light, does not belong to the white race. It is the abyssal face of the human genus, before all differentiations and through them,” (O. Clément, *Il volto interiore* Jaca Book, Milano 1978, 30-31).The representation of Jesus’ face thus realizes his personal presence. And Jesus’ person is divine, that of “the Son of God, begotten of the Father before all centuries, light of light, God true of God true” (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed).Due to creation, there is a presence of God’s Word in all finite reality: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers; all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16-17). The Apostle Paul is even more explicit:“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17).However, through the mystery of the Incarnation of God’s Word, Jesus’ face also realizes his human presence. The Word of the Father and Jesus of Nazareth are the only Person of the Son of God, the Word made flesh. And presence always refers to the Person, even if the titles and forms may vary. Indeed, Jesus, living in glory, realizes various forms of presence, that is, a motivated presence in diverse ways: he is present in the Word of God retold and heeded, to speak to us. In the intimate manner in which he makes himself close to us, to draw us near to himself and open our hearts to that love which becomes service. In his Name’s invocation, to come to our aid. In his face’s image, to worship him. In the assembly of his disciples, to gather them. In the holy gifts of his Body and Blood, to assimilate those who feed on him.The various ends of his presence find full motivation and fulfillment in the Eucharistic presence, the supreme moment of mutual personal giving in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, every word of revelation is oriented and understood in the unique Eternal Word made Voice, and every icon is oriented and understood in the unique Image consubstantial with the Father made Face (cf.Hb 1:1-3.The conclusion of this paragraph is that the icon of Jesus’ face, according to the constant testimony of the Church Fathers, is the mother icon of all icons, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints. Jesus’ face “is the living seal of the synergy between God and man, is the Word in whom God expresses himself fully, the Word made flesh, remaining at the same time a silent Word, hidden, never exhausted. We shall never cease to walk in the light of this face” (Ps 88 [89], 16).Therefore, in Christian sacred art, the only true icon of God is the face of Christ. All other icons are icons by participation in the icon of Christ, in as much as they reproduce his traits of sanctity: “And we all, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, glory upon glory, according to the action of the Lord’s Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). This holds true for all Jesus’ disciples, but with the greatest splendor and energy for that one who, among all creatures, is the most united to Jesus: in her womb, and by her consent, the only-begotten Son of God became flesh and the firstborn of many brothers.Jesus’ face in Mary’s faceJesus’ face is present in Mary’s face, as a child’s face is present in that of his mother, while it reproduces her similarities. The cause of Mary’s face resembling Jesus’ face is both natural and supernatural: it is Mary’s divine motherhood. Therefore, it is opportune to reread a short text from the Council of Ephesus (431):“We confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, is perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and a body. He is generated from the Father before all ages according to divinity, born for us and for our salvation at the end of time from the Virgin Mary according to humanity. He is consubstantial to the Father according to divinity and consubstantial to us according to humanity, having accomplished the union of the two natures. Therefore, we confess one Lord, one Christ, one Son, one God. According to this concept of union without confusion, we confess that the holy Virgin is the Mother of God, having the Word of God incarnate and made flesh, and having united to himself, from the moment of her conception, the temple she assumed.” (Council of Ephesus, Formula of Union, in Documents of the Ecumenical Councils, UTET, Bologna 1978, 148).Mary gave us “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), collaborating in an inexpressible way with the Incarnation of the Word of God through her consent to the Father’s will.Now, Eve, truly blessed among all women, radiates the glory of God in all fullness that is possible in a creature, in whom the design of the Father to deify his tom was fully realized in Christ Jesus:“Those who love God are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also justified; and those whom he justified, these he also glorified” (Rom 8:28-30).Mary, therefore, is the only perfect icon of the incarnate Word, an image fully conformed to the image of God’s Son. And this because of her sanctity, a sanctity that does not nullify the human relationship of mother to Son, but exalted and glorifies it. Thus, on Mary’s face is reflected the face of Jesus, precisely because Mary’s face left its mark on Jesus’ face. The Son’s face and the Mother’s face merge in a burning similarity created by the action of the Holy Spirit, a fullness of humanity and divinity: “In Christ all the fullness of the divinity dwells, and we have our part in that fullness” (Col 2:9-10). Therefore, if we all participate in Christ’s fullness, how much more will the Mother of the Lord, who conceived the Son of God in perfect virginity, allowing herself to become the Mother by birth, participate in this fullness.Also, Mary’s face, like Jesus’ face, reveals its canonicity: veiled head and crowned with a star (the Mother), radiant and maternal face (the Virgin Mother), compassionate gaze (the Mother of Mercy).The MotherMary’s face is always framed by the veil that covers her head, with a star on her forehead. The veil signifies Mary as “servant of the Lord,” and the star, her perfect and perpetual virginity.Mary always lived submissive to the Father’s will, to the point of meriting Jesus’ praise. When one day a woman raised her voice from the crowd and said, “Blessed are the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you” (Lk 11:27), Jesus responded, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11:28). With her consent to the conception of the Son of God, Mary takes part, in a unique way, in our salvation, in the “mystery silent for countless ages” (Rom 16:25).Therefore, the veil could also signify this full revelation of the mystery of our salvation, just as the face emerges from the veil.By her loving obedience, Mary is not only involved in the Incarnation of the Word of God, but also in his passion, death, and resurrection. Just as the Son “made himself obedient even to death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8), so too Mary, the obedient servant, allows her soul to be pierced by the sword of sorrow (cf. Luke 2:35) and accomplishes, as a consenting mother, full participation in the passion and death of Jesus (cf. Romans 8:17), in such a way that she can say, even more than the Apostle Paul: “I was crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).Therefore, in her as well is fulfilled the glory design desired by the Father, who, just as he exalts Jesus, also exalts the Mother, reconnecting and proclaiming her Queen alongside the Lord Jesus, “in whose name every knee bows in heaven, on earth, and under the earth” (Philippians 2:10). From this glorious association with the risen and glorified Son, Mary, having become Queen, receives all power that a creature can receive, above all creatures and in particular above rebellious creatures. This is the source of her powerful protection against evil spirits.The Virgin MotherMary’s face is all radiant because it is turned toward the face of Jesus: “Turn to him and be radiant” (Psalm 34 [33]:6). Mary, the pure virgin, is preserved from all impurity: evil is made powerless in her through the purifications of her parents, by the action of the Holy Spirit, who keeps her always under his shadow, and by her free choice. Thus, she participates in the radiance of the Son’s Face: through divine grace, there is no darkness in her. Her light is the glory of fertile virginity. Therefore, we need to understand in depth the meaning of the virgin conception of Jesus by Mary.Everyone, as a creature, comes into existence created by God. In this work of creation, there is a cooperation between the love of the parents (the marital union) and the love of God the Father. This is not the case with the conception of Jesus: it is not a creature that comes into existence, but the Word of God who takes flesh in Mary’s womb. There is only the cooperation of two wills: Mary’s “yes” and God the Father’s “yes.” We do not pre-exist before our conception in our mother’s womb. Jesus pre-existed, as the Word of God, in the Father’s womb. Therefore, it is the Incarnation, the virgin conception of the Word of God, that is Mary’s glory.Moreover, Mary perfectly fulfilled her motherhood not only in the conception and birth of Jesus, but also in his educational work.We can catch a glimpse of her educational style when, with Joseph, she encounters Jesus in the temple, “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Lk 2:46). She speaks, but to say: “Why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been anxiously searching for you” (Lk 2:48). Mary puts her father first. It is certainly easy to see in this detail a simple cultural custom. However, we can also consider that she does so intentionally, following her own educational style. Today we know that the mental health of the boy requires a good relationship with his father. We have good reasons to think that Mary seeks to foster this relationship between Jesus and Joseph. Thus, Mary fully realized her motherhood by conceiving, growing, and educating the Son of God.For this reason, Mary now presents a maternal face, of universal motherhood, through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, who makes supernatural what would have been natural in her: the face of the woman, the New Eve. Divine motherhood awakens in her all the charisms of femininity, receptivity, and intercession. Now we know that charisms pass, but that “charity never ends” (1 Cor 13:8-10). Therefore, through her charity, Mary continues to exercise her motherhood towards all the faithful and all the children of Adam. Moreover, Mary’s motherhood obscures the paternity of the Father, who gives us the Son. The Mother expresses the heart of the Father, his mercy, his tenderness, his love, which is the Son Jesus. This expression of tenderness is heightened when Mary’s face joins that of the Infant Jesus, as in the typology of the Virgin Eleusa.The Mother of MercyMary’s altar is compassionate. In the antiphone “Salve Regina,” the liturgy uses these expressions: “Mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo et spes nostra […]. Illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte” [Mother of mercy, life, sweetness, and hope of ours […] . Turn thy merciful eyes upon us!].The Virgin of Guadalupe addresses Juan Diego, still a neophyte, with these words: “Aparecei-me, meu filho, e ouvi-me atentamente. Eu sou a Mãe da Vida, a Mãe da Verdade, a Mãe da Doçura, e a Mãe da Misericórdia. Fui escolhida e designada por Deus para ser a Mãe de todos os seres humanos.””I am the perfect, ever-virgin holy Mary, the mother of the true and only God. I ardently desire that a small sacred house be built on this place, a temple be raised for me, in which I wish to show Him, make Him manifest, offer Him to the people with all my personal love, with my compassionate altar (in my compassionate gaze), with my true help and true salvation, for I am indeed your merciful mother: to you, to all who dwell on this earth, and to all those who love Me, invoke Me, seek Me, and place all their trust in Me.” (Nican Mopotua, p. 26-31).This compassionate altar of Mary, the constant attribute of all Marian icons, expresses God’s compassion for Adam and all descendants of Adam: God the Father “so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In Marian icons, the Virgin’s altars, which fix the gaze of the contemplator, and her hand, which points to the Savior, offer, to those who allow themselves to be olted and guided, Mary’s faith, of the same temper as Abraham’s faith. Mary’s motherhood becomes an expression of the Father’s surprising and incomprehensible philanthropy, “who did not spare His Son” (Romans 8:32).

The Universal Maternity of Mary and Her Iconographic Face

I like to conclude this paragraph by emphasizing that Mary’s universal motherhood is reflected iconographically in her inculturated face, which assumes the features of every race, the color of every land, and the sound of every tongue. This dimension of faith finds expression in the art of every people, giving Mary’s face the traits of a European, African, Japanese, or Latin American face. Yet, what is most surprising is that the Virgin Mary, when she manifests herself visibly according to the inscrutable designs of God who desires the salvation of all peoples, performs the same operation of inculturation. A strong example is Our Lady of Guadalupe: her face takes on the features of a mestizo face, even though mestizos did not yet exist, for her face was imprinted on Juan Diego’s tilma on December 12, 1531, ten years after the conquest of Mexico City. We can truly conclude that Mary gives a face to those who have no face and continues to do so, to individuals and peoples.

Image and Word: Their Relationship in the World of Art

The image refers to the function of sight and is realized in spatiality. The word refers to the function of hearing and is realized in duration: the visual (televised) is spatial (planetary), while sound is temporal. The image presents reality. The word pronounces itself over reality and raises a problem of truth that goes beyond our sensory perception. Therefore, in our current culture dominated by sight and television, a radical opposition seems to arise between image and word, analogous to the opposition between senses and intellect, between perception and truth.However, it is everyone’s experience that it is impossible to think without imagining and without speaking to oneself. Image and word contribute to the activity of thought and cognition, to every spiritual activity of our personal self, allowing us to express ourselves beyond sensory experience. Image and word share a common point in the activity of the spirit, which unites space and time in cognition, the perceived reality and truth in thought. This implies that an image can also introduce us to true cognition. This is the case with sacred images, as they represent reality not as it is seen but as it is revealed and experienced, much like children in their naivety.Therefore, in Christian anthropology, image and word are complementary, not contradictory. What the Fourth Council of Constantinople (869-870) stated remains ever relevant: “We prescribe that, before the sacred icon of our Lord Jesus Christ, prostration be made in the same way as before the book of the holy Gospels. For just as we obtain salvation from the letters contained therein, so too, both literate and illiterate, we receive our share of benefit from the iconic energy of the colors at our disposal.”

Because what the word announces and makes present through sound, the image announces and makes present through color», (Council of Constantinople IV, canon 3).

Thus, the conjunction of word and image, realized in the Incarnation of the Word, constitutes the heart of Christianity, and is even its central affirmation: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Since then, we have seen his glory, the glory of a Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Therefore, one must consider the complementarity between seeing and hearing, image and word, in the spirit of reception and in Christian revelation. In this complementarity, the image receives clarity and determination from the word, and the word receives the ability to address the mind and heart of the receiver.

We are thus led to reflect more carefully on the relationship between sight and hearing, between image and word, regarding the expressive activity of the receiver. The image will thus regain its meaning in the context of spiritual expressiveness and show itself capable of causing contemplation and reflection, fostering gratitude and beauty.

Two concrete applications thus emerge from what we have highlighted about the meaning of Jesus’ face in Mary’s face, two fields of action for Mary’s face: in personal faith life and in contemporary culture dominated by the visual.

Mary’s Face in Personal Faith Life

The icon of Mary’s face has a therapeutic effect on those who feel overwhelmed and are overwhelmed by their compassionate offerings. Mary’s altar reorders and heals each person’s relationship with their own mother. We know that many psychological illnesses are both cause (in the receiver) and effect (of the mother) of a distorted mother-child relationship. Maternity, in fact, a priceless gift of God, has been marred by sin and requires, therefore, redemption and living under the sign of Jesus. Mary’s face, entirely pure and the perfect mother, acts on the troubled imagination, reorganizing it, and this reorganization has beneficial effects: directly on psychological discomforts, indirectly on physical illnesses, as it encourages the sick to discover the meaning of their illness.

To use the icon of Mary’s face, some essential information about Christian sacred iconography is important. The icon is essentially an image, and precisely as an image, it is charged with emotion and stimulates action.

The action of the Holy Spirit follows this iconic path: grace moves through the ways of nature, following the universal law of salvific economy.In the Semitic perspective, the soul is composed of spirit, psyche, and body. The icon, laden with the energy of the Holy Spirit, acts upon the psyche and spirit (our decision-making capacity), for “the Spirit of God comes to the aid of our weakness” (Rom 8:26), and this action reverberates in the body as well.When offering the icon, before or after, an inversion of the offering takes place: the offerer realizes they are being offered. If they choose to let themselves be offered, they slowly open up to the other, not as a duplicate of themselves, but to the other in their otherness. With this conversion of the offering, the icon enters the imagination and begins to restructure it ever more deeply.Every icon is composed of contrast and color. The contrast primarily acts upon our *logos*, while the vibrational energy of color acts upon *eros*. A well-balanced icon achieves a healthy equilibrium between *logos* and *eros*, between rationality and emotivity. This balance is indicated by self-mastery.In the authentic Christian tradition, the icon, before being a beauty event, is a revelation of the Word of God. Every icon contains a revealed truth that guides us toward the Whole Truth (cf. Jn 16:13). It is this truth, discovered and internalized, that “verifies” the icon.However, this truth revealed by the icon requires careful and patient reading. Its energetic light is given in the silence of reception, like a seed in fertile soil or water in a dry land, and it enters those who offer themselves to be healed—of their thoughts and convictions, and of their imagination. Therefore, a contemplative attitude, a deep listening, is required in which one remains open to receiving the gift of the icon, without imposing any conditions, receptive to the novelty of the mystery that might be revealed. From this perspective, we understand why the icon demands silence and prayer.When contemplating icons, one is struck by their intrinsic dynamism: they say, in their fixity, what images usually say with their movement. For us, accustomed to this explicit and sometimes illusory dynamism, it is a bit fatiguing to fix on the receptive and unarmed altar presented by the icon: “offered in offerings.”Therefore, it is necessary to distance ourselves from the modern conception of images: the icon is not a window through which we can enter the world represented, but a place of the presence of the mystery represented, which radiates to those who open themselves to receive it.Now, if we engage in this type of visual prayer before an icon of Mary’s face that looks back at whoever looks at it, with perseverance (a few minutes each day), it will reactivate our relationship of faith with Jesus and improve our spiritual life. Mary, the Virgin Mother, will heal each person’s relationship with their own mother, with their own body, and with their own emotional sensitivity.The dualism of soul and body encompasses a range of situations, from culturism (which prioritizes the body) to super-spiritualism (which prioritizes the soul), leading to negative, even heavy, attitudes towards the joy of fully living the humanity that we are, because it forgets that “all that God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if taken with gratitude” (1 Timothy 4:4). In such situations, slowly, Mary’s face reveals the importance of the body to those who try to live like angels, and the importance of spirituality and the immortality of the soul to those who try to live like rational animals.The devaluation of emotional sensitivity, often coupled with a falsification of eros reduced to sex, encompasses a range of situations, from excessive introspective fixation to psychedelic openness. The common defect is the lack of a mature interiority capable of becoming a gift, because the sources of tuman eros, from which authentic relationships that allow individuals to live in true communion with their fellow humans do not arise, are polluted. Mary’s icon has a particularly effective action on the emotional sphere and restores harmony between emotionality and rationality. It enables us to enjoy happy realities and events with a joy that does not leave bitter traces, and to suffer in adverse situations without losing inner peace. One might say that Mary introduces us to the poetry of life.In the face of situations of discomfort or illness, caused by the dramatic rupture of the harmony between the components of individual life (corporeity, psyche, emotionality, values, lifestyles) and the components of social life (economy, environment, culture, society, and services), Mary’s face, which looks back at us and through which we allow ourselves to be looked at, reveals new modalities of self-management, even when the limits imposed by illness make us suffer.Finally, by opening ourselves to true relationships, it also prompts a shift in medical care, moving from an organ-centric medicine to a relationship-focused medicine.The Face of Mary in Visual CultureI would like to begin this final reflection with a desire expressed by Pope John Paul II:“The rediscovery of the Christian icon will also help to become aware of the urgency to react against the dehumanizing and often degrading effects of the multiple images that condition our lives in advertising and mass media. It is, in fact, an image that brings upon us the altar of a hidden Other and gives access to the spiritual reality of the world and eschatology,” (John Paul II, *Duodecimum saeculum* n. 11).Today’s visual culture, dominated by images, is built on the immediacy of pictures that leave no time for reflection, the association of events that does not allow for argument, the generalization that simplifies everything, and the allure of images and concrete proposals. Following the Pope’s guidance, Christian iconography can help people overcome the idolatry of self-referential images, discover a meaningful life, and appreciate the spiritual reality of Christian faith. In this work of detoxifying illusory seductions, demystifying interpersonal relationships, and evangelization, the icon of Mary’s face plays a decisive role as it represents the image of woman and mother, not in competition, but by proposing and reproposing a new mindset, according to the imperative: “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may discern the will of God, what is good, pleasing, and perfect” (Romans 12:2).In today’s globalized culture, which asserts itself as a superstructure capable of homogenizing all regional cultures, scientific knowledge, technological development, economic relations, and an idolatrous cosmovision dominate. This means that the singular event prevails over other forms of knowledge, technology and economics dictate scientific research and politics. All of this within a self-referential cosmovision where the individual contemplates and satisfies himself alone. In this context, family values, politics, art, altruism in the logic of gratuitousness and gift-giving become difficult to live and sustain, as they encounter increasingly strong opposing forces.The visual world is essentially tele-visual, and the gloss that makes everything shiny is idolatry, of which we must be aware.Therefore, a brief clarification is needed regarding the distinction between an idol and the icon of Mary’s face.Something becomes an idol when, in adoring it, it gives all that the adorer expects. The altar finds everything admirable in what it sees and, therefore, rests and reposes in it. Thus, “the altar makes the idol, and not the idol the altar, which means that the idol embodies the visibility of the altar’s intention” (J.-L. Marion, *Dio senza essere* 24).In contrast, an icon summons the altar in its visibility to show the unreliability of what it itself displays and to correct and stimulate it to adore even beyond what it can see. The icon thus becomes a manifestation of the invisible, relativizing its visibility, in a sense frustrating the altar’s expectation. It does not fix the altar in itself but refers it to the depths of what transcends all sight and experience. This applies as well to sacred images of Mary’s face. A simple decorative icon appreciated for its formal aesthetic value is reduced to an idol. Now, the operations of television culture are essentially autoreferential.Mary’s face icon offers a strong corrective response to this “glowing” world, while it is the face of a woman, a mother, and a praying one.As a woman, it allows one to regain the warmth of intuition, which transcends dominant functional and instrumental rationality, and stimulates interpersonal relations. She herself is an unparalleled model in the gesture of running to serve Elizabeth. As a mother, she offers a tender love to every child born of a woman. With her psychological maternal reality, she can lead all other children born without the necessary affection from their mothers to personal growth. And as she accompanied Jesus in his public life, so she knows how to accompany each child in their private life and social relations.But the strongest contribution of Mary’s face lies in faith. A woman who knows to marvel, as before the angel’s greeting in the Annunciation. A woman who knows to truly listen to God’s Word, executing it step by step. A woman who knows to persevere in following Jesus, her Sentor and Master, to the Cross. A woman who knows to wait for the fulfillment of promises until Easter Day.In conclusion, we can observe that the *imago Dei* according to which a human being is created, is the constitutive principle of the human being, the gift of a being entirely turned towards its divine Source and that allows it to constantly return to it. Therefore, the image that ontologically guides a human being to God is the face of Jesus, God made human. But Mary’s face, the Mother Sentor, gently and maternally introduces every “born of a woman” to the decisive encounter with Sentor Jesus. Jesus’ face in Mary’s face opens us a simple, easy, and pleasant path that allows us to rediscover our human dignity, our vocation to be God’s children in Christ Jesus, and to be saints of the same holiness of God.“The paths of holiness are many and appropriate to each one’s vocation” (*Novo Millennio Ineunte* 31). However, Mary’s face, a true icon of Christ’s face, can summon all paths to holiness and contribute decisively in the elaboration of “holiness pedagogy,” offering the sober sweetness of contemplative life that appreciates silence and prayer.To deepen contemplation of Christ’s face through Mary, the apostolic letter *Rosarium Virginis Mariae* by John Paul II invites us to contemplate Jesus’ face with Mary’s altars.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology and Marian theology and Marian apparitions, and consider our Graduate Studies in Mariology program.—Continue your Marian formation: Explore our resources on Mariology, Marian theology, and Marian apparitions. Discover our Graduate Studies in Mariology at the Locus Mariologicus Institute.—To deepen theological reflection on the face of Mary and her relationship to Christ, consult the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater by Pope John Paul II.

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