On being hidden

By happymama at 8:54 am on Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Yesterday I was sweeping innumerable crumbs in my kitchen. I admit I found myself beginning to think, “why do I have to do this every single day? All I do is sweep, sweep, sweep!” Mess, mess, mess. It is not my goal to have a perfectly clean home. But we shouldn’t have to step on left-overs every time we walk into the kitchen. For a moment I was bemoaning my daily chores.

The little devil sitting on my left shoulder started whispering, “And what would you rather be doing with your precious time, my dear?”

To which the little angel sitting on my right shoulder responded, “Honey, go look in that little book over there on your bookshelf.”

I had been meaning to flip through The Way again. It’s a compilation of sayings by St. Josemaria Escriva. Here’s the quote I found:

So your talents, your personality, your qualities are being wasted. So you’re not allowed to take full advantage of them. Meditate well on these words of a spiritual writer: “The incense offered to God is not wasted. Our Lord is more honored by the immolation of your talents than by their vain use.” 684

I’ve long trusted in the immeasurable value of all the little things we do in life, when they are done out of love. I long ago realized the foolishness of desiring to “fix” the world’s problems by myself. I have embraced the hidden life… but still need to be reminded every now and then to continue choosing this life, lest I should complain and lose focus on loving. This is why the writings of the saints are such a treasure for us all. They cry out to us from across the centuries: carry on!

The boys recently found some honey locust seed pods, and we broke them open. The 4yo [4 year old] asked if we could plant them, so I said, “sure, dig a hole.” The boys did, and put in the seeds. “Now cover them up.” But they didn’t want to. They wanted to be able to see them and watch them grow. It’s an instinctive desire to want to watch things change and grow. The same is true of our spiritual lives. We’d rather see progress than actually work for it. And this is why God usually chooses to hide our spiritual growth. If humans walked around with some sort of “holiness gauge” on their sleeves for all to see, then holiness would become a competition, and the whole point of sanctity - love - would be forgotten. It’s a lesson to be learned not once, but over a lifetime.

One of my favorite Marian books is called Mystery of Mary: Model of the Growth of Christian Life by Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, O.P. (Of the Brothers of St. John.) He writes much about the hiddenness of the Holy Family. Here’s an excerpt I read recently:

The mystery of the hidden life, from the return from Egypt to the Finding in the Temple, presents to us the model of the very humble and simple sanctification of the manual work of Mary, as mistress of the household in Nazareth. Scripture gives us no detail concerning this entire period, the predominant character of which is to be hidden and to develop according to the common law of mankind. It simply states: “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him…”

It’s only this progress of the Child-God… that the Holy Spirit wanted to point out so as to bring it to full light. Corresponding to Jesus’ physical and experiential progress, there occurs in Mary’s heart a wonderful ascent in love. This very obscure work we mentioned, totally directed as it is towards God and totally in the service of fraternal charity, is as it were the daily food which enables this ascent in charity to be realized in such a divine and simple, but also such a steady way.

If charity transforms work by ordering it to God & neighbor, by giving it a new meaning, the work accepted out of love is at the same time a sort of fuel which keeps this divine fire of love burning, which offers it some human penal matter to burn to enable it to be more and more pure and bright in the eyes of God, but more and more hidden, as though covered with ashes, in the eyes of men.

It is in this light that we should understand how charity transforms all the tedious labor connected with the duties of our state of life… God likes to plunge the souls he loves into the common and banal duty of mankind for a long time, so that they may progress and become stronger in their humble love… This entire period remains a mystery of joy. Jesus is present. No matter how tedious and difficult, the labor becomes joyful and a source of joy if Jesus is there and it is done for Him. For human labor keeps the family community closely united and enables it to experience a new intimacy, that of common work accomplished together in view of reaching the same goal…