Mirrors of the soul

So you don’t like wearing a mask? Neither do I but because the law says I must wear a mask, I comply. I can give you a list of reasons why a mask isn’t pleasant to wear. I can tell you that it takes away my freedom and I can tell you that it covers my mouth and therefore is symbolic of curtailing my right to freedom of speech. I could tell you that I seriously struggle to hear what people are saying because I am hard of hearing and rely a lot on lip reading. I could tell you all those things but I won’t. I have learned that there is something very special that happens when people wear masks. Instead of masking the real, it enhances the real. I was in a shopping centre recently and as I was looking at the people I realized that I was focussing on their eyes. When eyes are the only part of your face that is visible it’s hard to focus on anything else. Guess what? Eyes don’t lie. By looking ito someone’s eyes you actually see their soul. Sadness, happiness, joy and heartache are all locked up in your eyes.  There’s a proverb that says , ‘The eyes are the windows of the soul,’ which comes from Cicero (106-43B.C.) He is quoted as saying, ‘Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi’ (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter). The L*tin proverbs, ‘Vultus est index animi’ or ‘Oculus animi index,’ are usually translated as ‘The face is the index of the mind.’ The French say, ‘Les yeux sont le miroir de l’dme (The eyes are the mirror of the soul). In the Bible in Matthew 6:22-23 Jesus says, ““The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” The Message version reads: “Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have!” Let us take these insights with us into 2021 and instead of complaining and resisting the masks let us start looking into people’s eyes and maybe we can learn to be the light when their darkness needs it.