God Sees You

God Sees You

He sees you because he loves you

In the Turin city in the 19^th century, among the multifarious kinds of boys, the oratory boys of Don Bosco stood out in everything especially in leading a virtuous life. The salient reason behind this success was pious customs of the oratory and one among them was the Goodnight Talk before going to bed which is faithfully practised even today in the Salesian houses. In most of the goodnight talks the prominent counsel that Mamma Maragret, mother of Don Bosco, gave was, “God sees you!” the boys took those words so fervently that they always felt the sight of God in their own lives. This maxim is passed on to this day as a tradition. One can find this phrase almost in all the Salesian houses somewhere or the other.

Though it fascinates in the beginning, due to the lack of consciousness of the meaning of the sentence it turns into a mere cliché. Moreover, one can even question its meaning. The general understanding of this sentence that comes to our mind would be – God sees our every action and so He will punish us when we do wrong or you can cheat men but not God. It cannot be the apt meaning for this phrase as we are aware that God is love. The lovable God does not look through microscope to keep the score of every wrong that we do. There must be another meaning latent in the phrase. The following story can help us understand that meaning better.

Once a little boy went to visit his grandmother’s house. He enjoyed looking at the beautiful pictures and attractive things in the granny’s house. At a certain point he was intrigued to look at a white board on a colourful wall. He was standing there for a long time with a deep thought. Looking at the strange gesture of her grandson, the old woman came to the boy and noticed his curiosity on the white board with these words, “God sees you.” Reading the thoughts running in the mind of the little lad she told him, “My dear Tom, so far you have been looking at the pictures and they were pleasing you because they are good. But now you are aware that God is looking at you. You also please him as long as you are good.” “But what will He do if I do wrong?” interrupted the boy. The pious woman replied, “Instead of asking what He will do to you, ask what you will do Him when you do wrong.” The boy remained silent. “Remember”, she continued, “Whenever you do wrong, you hurt the one who loves you more than anybody else. He always sees you, because he loves you.”

The latent meaning is clear now. Probably, Mamma Margaret and Don Bosco might have meant this hidden meaning as they advised the boys, “God sees you.” Consequently, whenever the boys were tempted to do any mischief they would promptly remind themselves, “Don Bosco would not like that.” Don Bosco was always practicing from his boyhood. It so happened once that when he and his brother, Joseph were playing, a stranger tempted them to steal, they answered him, “Mamma won’t be pleased with that.” It is not merely pleasing but esteeming the person whom we love. This esteem reaches its peak with the love of God. Because God’ love is Love par excellence. He assured this through the prophet Isaiah, “Never! Can a mother forget her little child and not have love for her own son? Yet even if that should be, I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” (Is. 49: 13-16). Hence we are in great disturbance when we hurt this everloving God by our sin. The scripture says, “Fear is the beginning of the wisdom” and “not the end”, G.K. Chesterton completes it. This fear cannot be the fear of punishment, on the contrary, the fear of offending the goodness of a person who deserve our love or reciprocate our love. In fact, in the traditional act of contrition we pray, “I detest all my sins because they deserve your dreadful punishments… but most of all they offend Your Infinite Goodness.”

The only solution for this dilemma of pleasing or hurting is love as “it does not rejoice in wrong doing” (1 Corinthians 13:6a). Where there is love there is no hurt as St. Augustine urges, “Love and do what you wish.” God sees us not because He is omnipresent but He is everloving. He sees us because He loves us.