Abigail Gallagher
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The same routine happens every morning. The sun ushers in a new day, and the first task of almost every human is to hyper-examine their flesh. Through the variety of different mirrors, strategically placed around the home, individuals “encounter” themselves. One mirror provides a place for flesh to be picked and pried. A second mirror continues to distort the flesh, through the overly magnified angle it displays. The weakness of the flesh is exacerbated because the mirror aids in human beings disguising and destroying themselves. Frantically, they begin to mask their flesh with makeup, becoming almost unrecognizable. A third, but certainly not final, mirror shows them the “big picture,” where their entire surface is revealed. Nasty criticisms, formulated in their minds, bounce off the mirror and resonate in their hearts. Hundreds of other mirrors will be encountered, as they venture into the world where the weak nature of their flesh will seize them.
Earthly mirrors have become the occasion of man turning in on himself, stirring the vices of man's wounded nature and causing individuals to loathe their God-given surface. An overwhelming value has been placed on mundane mirrors, because they help humans “correct” what they dislike. However, the attention of society is in the wrong place. Emphasis placed on the temporal mirrors, effectively blinds people from seeing their truest, most authentic mirror, that is themself. On the transcendent or transmundane plane, the realest thing is not man’s reflection in the mirror or the mirror itself. A reflection has no personhood or living element, like the person that is reflected, making it less real. There is a greater, otherworldly, kind of mirror than the earthly ones. On a spiritual level, everyone is a mirror.
God divinely crafted each one of His children to be a living reflection, a mirror, of Himself. God makes this truth known to humanity in Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’” Every individual was created as a reflection of His 3 love and goodness. This unique mirroring that is personhood is a testament to the existence of God, and His divine power. Concupiscence, the wound of original sin, augmented by personal sin, which all people struggle with, fosters a continuous disfiguring. Man’s nature is now inclined, and has the free will, to follow in his woundedness by succumbing to sin. Rather than striving for the higher things and respecting the image in which God created humans, sinfulness leads to attacks on the flesh that God gave us, leading many to love the low path. In a way, earthly mirrors exacerbate vices because a mirror, in modern times, serves as an outlet for each person to stare, pick, and poke at the flesh they come hate. The low path is plagued both by rampant self-hatred and also by an abundance of vanity. Many begin to play the “god” of their own lives, altering and mutilating themselves, trying to make their flesh into a reflection they desire. In acknowledging the way sin distorts the mirror of each individual, a resolution can be brought to this very human problem. The damage done to the spiritual mirror is repaired by grace, received through prayer and the sacraments. Grace allows man to be a partaker in the divine nature of God, helping him conform to Image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
To understand how personhood is a mirror of God, St. Augustine’s commentary, in his work De Doctrina Christiana, provides an apparent explanation. He discusses different signs, specifically the distinction between Natural and Given signs. On the spiritual plane, being a mirror aligns with what Natural signs are. St. Augustine explains Natural signs, in Book Two, as “those which without a wish or any urge to signify cause something else besides themselves to be known from them, like smoke, which signifies fires. It does not signify fire because it wishes to do so; but because of our observation and consideration of things previously experienced it is realized that there is fire beneath it, even if nothing but smoke appears.” While our existence as mirrors of God is not something we can discover like earthly smoke, the revelation of this truth 4 can be observed and contemplated on so that one day all can easily see how every person reflects God. While man might be blind to his existence as a natural sign of God, turning away from that gift, or perverting that gift because of his sinfulness, that inherent sign can never be stripped away from his nature.
Life as a spiritual mirror is continually referenced in Holy Scripture, revealing God’s greater plan. As St. Paul expresses in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” On earth, God’s effects are seen, but not in totality. Although man’s flesh is a dim reflection, it is still good because it is united to and yearns towards something transcendent. By being a mirror on earth, men know that a full revelation of God Himself is promised to them. In heaven, the entirety of His goodness will be clearly shown in the Beatific Vision, where the veil of earthly reflections will be put down, and they will see God face to face.