“As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God” (Ps 123:2).
How can we learn to keep our eyes always fixed on our Father?
Many saints and masters of the spiritual life, especially St Benedict and St Teresa of Avila, exhort us to live more consciously in the presence of God. This is not easy for us because we tend to be distracted by many things and often need to turn to God to become aware of His loving presence.
This is where today’s Psalm verse comes to our aid: A maid tries to do the work her mistress has entrusted to her with the utmost care. She is always attentive to whether what she does and how she does it pleases her mistress. This is not a scrupulous attitude of always being afraid of doing something wrong, but rather a confirmation that her service is up to her mistress’s expectations. She will therefore be very sensitive to any reaction from her. In doing so, she is not primarily concerned with herself, but with pleasing her mistress.
The words of the Psalm remind us of the Virgin Mary and her wonderful response to the angel’s announcement: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38).
We can assume that the Virgin Mary always had her eyes on “the hands” of our Heavenly Father, with great attention and love. Let us enter her school! She will form us according to God’s will and deepen our interior dialogue with the Lord. What freedom we will gain when we are no longer slaves to our desires and to the seductions of this world, but always have our eyes fixed on the hand of our Lord who loves us with infinite love!