On
Pilgrimage Within a Gaze...
by Plinio
Corrêa de Oliveira
A commentary on the miraculous
International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima.
I do not know a countenance equal
to this one. Moved by an inveterate habit of observing everything,
I contemplate it so that I may later understand it. As I
fix my eyes upon that countenance, I suddenly perceive that
I am entering it.
Yes, its unique expression emanates
from the face and especially the eyes. Enveloped in the
ambience it creates, I feel invited to enter deep into her
gaze.
What a gaze! None other is so calm,
frank, pure, or welcoming. In none other can one penetrate
with such ease. None other holds such unfathomable depth
or grand horizons. The more one penetrates this gaze, the
more one is attracted toward an indescribable interior and
sublime summit.
What summit? A state of soul I would
be tempted to describe as full of paradoxes if the word
"paradox," were not so misused today and thus
appear disrespectful.
The Scholastics say every perfection
results from the balance of harmonious opposites. Thus we
are not speaking about a precarious balance between flagrant
contradictions whereby our contemporary world seeks to maintain
a poor stained and vacillating peace at the cost of so many
shameful concessions. No, this is a supreme harmony of all
forms of good.
In the depth of this gaze, I see
arise precisely a peak where all perfections meet. It is
a peak incomparably higher than the columns that support
the firmament. It is a peak where a crystalline, categorical
and irresistible rule excludes every form of evil, however
slight or small.
One could spend his whole life within
that gaze, without ever reaching the summit of that peak.
It is not however a useless effort. Within that gaze one
does not walk, but flies. One is not a tourist but a pilgrim.
Although the pilgrim can never reach
the height of that sacred mountain, the sum of all created
perfection, he sees it with ever increasing clarity the
more he flies toward her.
While on this pilgrimage of the soul,
the pilgrim flies toward a gaze that does not merely envelope
but penetrates him. Closing his eyes, he perceives a light
in the depths of his being.
The gaze is the soul of the countenance.
It is an impressive countenance! The fool might consider
it inexpressive. To a skilled observer, it is greater than
History because it touches eternity; greater than the universe
because it reflects the infinite.
The forehead appears to contain
thoughts that, beginning with a Crib and ending with a Cross,
take in all of human events.
The lines of the entire face and
nose possess a charm "more beautiful than beauty."
As a poet once wrote, these are silent lips that nevertheless
say everything at every moment. They appear to praise God
in the uniqueness of every creature, beseeching God to have
pity on every pain and misery as if she had suffered from
each one of them. These lips have an eloquence which reduces
the orations of Demosthenes or Cicero to utter babble. What
can be said of the skin other that it is snowy-white? This
description says both everything and nothing. To describe
it, one would need to imagine a snowiness that profoundly
reflects with infinite discretion, all the shades of the
rainbow, which would in turn inspire the soul that contemplated
it with all the wonders of purity.
Yes, I went on pilgrimage within
this gaze so filled with surprises. Yet, I unexpectedly
feel that her gaze also went on pilgrimage inside me. Hers
was a poor and merciful pilgrimage, not from splendor to
splendor, but from need to need, from misery to misery.
If only I open myself to her, she will offer me a remedy
for my shortcomings, help against every obstacle and hope
for every affliction.
This statue is a wooden statue without
any special artistic value like so many others.
And yet, one only has to fix one's
eyes on this statue to see that, without moving or the least
physical transformation, it becomes brilliant with all these
splendors.
I do not know how this happens.
However, if the reader wishes, let him look and see…
I insist. If you believe in the
description that I have made, I invite you in turn to make
this magnificent pilgrimage within the gazes of the Virgin.
If you do not believe, look and see. I could not offer a
better invitation…
I pray to her for thee. I pray for
the Holy Church troubled and tormented as never before.
