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How imagining Jesus’ watchful eyes can help us avoid sin

Jesus Christ

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Philip Kosloski - published on 08/02/21

When you imagine Jesus looking at you, it should be more difficult for us to sin while under his gaze.

Often when we sin, we sin at night, thinking subconsciously that no one will see us.

Yet, doesn’t God always see us, regardless of the time of day?

We can forget this fundamental truth and then convince ourselves that even God is ignorant of our wrongdoings.

St. Peter Julian Eymard wrote a sermon, printed in the book The Divine Eucharist, about how we should do everything under Jesus’ watchful eyes.

You must perform your actions under the eye of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament that you may do them courageously, holily, and with pleasure. Know that the eye of Jesus Christ is directly upon you. How dare we offend Him under His very eyes, for He sees us as we would see Him were the veil of the Sacred Species to fall? But, like the guilty old men of the Scriptures, we turn our back on the eye of Our Lord in order to sin, otherwise we should never dare offend Him.

Eymard imagines what it would be like if we truly did live this way.

Ah! if we thought that Our Lord, who is so near us on the altar and in His tabernacle, inasmuch as one same roof covers us, is eye-witness of every one of our actions, and that at the end of the day we should have to appear in His august Presence to render Him an account of it, how faithful, diligent, and holy we should be in all our ways!

Furthermore, do not think of Jesus’ eyes as the eyes of an “angry judge,” who wants to see us fail.

Think of Jesus’ eyes as the eyes of a loving father, who suffers pain every time he sees one of his children fall from grace.

Try this exercise today and see how it might shape your actions.

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