The Sacred Gaze: Contemplation and the Healing of the Self by Susan R. Pitchford (review)

In The Sacred Gaze: Contemplation and the Healing of the Self, Susan R. Pitchford presents a look into the mirror that God lovingly holds up to each one of us. She asks the questions, “How do we become the people we are? What factors influence the content and meaning of our identities?” (xi–xii). As a Christian sociologist and lay Franciscan who loves Clare of Assisi, Pitchford weaves the traditions that form her with personal experience to present a spiritual path to personal growth, acceptance, and healing. She is careful to state from the beginning that God deals with each one of us individually, yet she believes others might benefit from her story of healing through Christ’s gaze. The image of the gaze of Christ comes from Clare of Assisi’s letter to Agnes of Prague in 1253, in which Clare advises Agnes to look daily into Christ’s face, which will reflect back to her an unblemished image of herself.

In the first chapter, Pitchford lays a foundation by asserting the need for spiritual growth in our lives. Like Paul, we wish to see God face to face, yet our woundedness comes between us and God. By growing in God we are transfigured, which enables us to see ourselves as we really are, which is how God sees us. For the author, this gradual process of healing that leads to transfiguration has brought deep peace.

Chapter two speaks of the woundedness of the self. As inherently relational beings, made in the image and likeness of a relational God, we come to know who we are by how others respond to us. In sociology, this is called the “looking-glass self.” As children, we are naturally self-centered, and we must grow out of that. Seeing ourselves as we truly are means removing whichever extreme plagues us, either the self-centeredness of childhood, or the belief that we have little or no worth in the universe. Embracing our own identity means rejecting the labels others place on us and the effects of social change, technology, and the mass media. However, this is not a problem unique to our time: both Francis and Clare of Assisi had to hold fast to their identities in order to overcome the expectations placed on them and begin their new religious movements. The more time we spend in the contemplative gaze, “the more the authentic self will displace the false self and the more our true self will be transformed into the image of God’s own beloved Son” (19). In case this feels too self-focused for readers, Pitchford reminds us that healing is not just for the self, but also for the sake of relationships with others.

Chapter three is entitled, “The Healing of the Self: Does God Care?” The question has been around since the Book of Job, and it becomes one of identity. Identity is a priority for growth and healing, as can be seen when Moses asks for God’s name. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus asks his followers if they really know who he is. Knowing who we really are enables us to seek freely the Kingdom of God. Chapter four carries forward this conversation by addressing the need for inner freedom from the fear and shame that makes us self-conscious even before God. This freedom allows us to relate to others from our “true self,” but it is a long process of growth which we do with the help of God in contemplation, along with help from resources such as counseling and spiritual direction.

Once she completes her consideration of human woundedness and the need for healing, Pitchford begins to speak of the “gaze” itself. While we know from Scripture that most people are not allowed to see God directly, the mystics throughout the history of Christianity have given us examples of what it means to purify ourselves and seek God’s...