“I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you” (Ps 32:8).
How different the words of the Psalm ‘my eye upon you’ sound from the famous phrase ‘Big Brother is watching you’ from a futuristic novel by George Orwell! The book portrays a totalitarian state that watches its citizens and controls their every move as a satanic imitation and perversion of God’s gaze.
The Psalm verse, on the other hand, speaks of our Heavenly Father who watches over the path of His children with great love and care. Just as a mother is attentive to and delighted in every movement of her newborn child, so God’s eyes rest on us with complacency. Admittedly, a little child needs a different kind of guardianship because it does not yet know sin. But he can always count on the loving care of his mother so that nothing will happen to him.
The eyes of God that watch over us want to show us the way to eternity, so that we do not go astray. That is why He teaches His own, knowing the dangers to which every soul is exposed, and gives us the spirit of counsel so that we may know and follow His ways day by day, hour by hour. We know that we even have an angel at our side whom God has entrusted with the task of lovingly accompanying us and protecting us from all evil.
In a part of the message to Mother Eugenia, God the Father addresses the young people and says to them “You can be sure I will not forget you after fifteen or twenty-five or thirty years, having created you”.
That’s for sure! God’s loving gaze is watching over us, come what may.