But he, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and gazing intently toward heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (Acts 7:55)
ὑπάρχων δὲ πλήρης πνεύματος ἁγίου ἀτενίσας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν εἶδεν δόξαν θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦν ἑστῶτα ἐκ δεξιῶντοῦ θεοῦ.
Cum autem esset plenus Spiritu Sancto, intendens in caelum vidit gloriam Dei et Iesum stantem a dextris Dei.
The verb ἀτενίζω is related to the sense of sight and indicates the act of looking, observing, but emphasizes that it is accompanied by a certain awareness and stopping. The Greeks attached great importance to the sense of sight, as evidenced by the multitude of verbs describing vision (e.g. βλέπω, ὁράω, θεάομαι), each of them having a slightly different meaning. Moreover, even the word “I know” in Greek is expressed through the verb οἶδα, which literally means “I saw”. The Greeks could therefore say “I know” because they had already seen something.
Referring this to today’s reading, two thoughts arise in me.
First: What or who I look at? What stops my sight? The well-known maxim applies here: “You live by what you eat.” If I look at Jesus, feed my eyes with His beauty, I become like Him, I begin to live in Him… Saint Stephen was looking at the sky and saw Jesus, and this gave him strength to profess his faith, even to the point of martyrdom.
Second: Does my gazing at Jesus (e.g. during Adoration) lead to a deeper knowledge of Him? Does my knowledge and intimacy with the Lord are nourished by Adoration, by keeping my gaze on Him?
