In the Christian creed we pray that God is visible and invisible. As people who reflect God, we too are visible and invisible. However, we often forget the invisible or what is hidden as not as important. They are inextricably linked.
Early in the year, one of my sons failed his maths exam. Receiving just 37%. He likes maths. He is good at maths so when he received this mark brought our stress levels up. Something clearly did not add up. What was missing? Firstly, he was not aware of the maths exam. But on closely investigation we discovered he had been watching large amounts of Youtube videos for entertainment.
When we look at the war in Ukraine and Russia are we missing something? Clearly, we do not like war. Is it an attempt at a landgrab or is their another reason? Why? You see when Jesus was asked a question by those in authority, like the Pharisees, he often would answer with another question. Why is that?
Questions opens us up to listen for something. Listening is the key part. Listening is far more than using our ears. We need to actively listen with our whole body. With our lips to we repeat what we have heard? With our eyes do we make eye contact? With our hearts do we show concern? With our body posture are we called to attention? Mary listened to the angel. She actively listened. To the point where she became pregnant with the Word. Are we called to embody the Word?
But remember the Word is bother Visible and Invisible. Jesus spent most of his life invisible in Nazareth. Did we miss that? Questions allow us to be more fully present in the living moment. Jesus is listening to the Word of God more than he is speaking. Mary pondered and she waited. Waiting for the answer to manifest in the world.
For my son using Youtube there are other questions that have not been answered. These will take time for them to emerge. For the Ukraine and Russian war there are questions that have not been asked that are waiting to emerge.
Are we people with all the answers or are we people interested in the question?
In the Garden of Eden the Serpent had answers. Quick answers. Twisting reality in a way that made him the centre of attention. Visible. We forgot the invisible. We forgot the question.
Throughout history the saints were willing to step into the messiness between the visible and the invisible. However, institutional religion at times can make us think in a fixed way or a certain way. But in reality, things are always not what they seem. We only have a certain perspective or part of the bigger picture. For the Marist Missionary Sister Francoise Perrotton who decided to travel 9 months on a ship to the remote Island of Futuna she did not know the messiness she would face alone for 12 years. Yet she boarded the ship with captain Marcea despite not knowing what would happen and despite strong opposition from John Claude Colin. She wanted to make a difference for women who were poor at a time when women were not encouraged into active ministry. Especially when one of the first Marists, Peter Chanel, had recently been executed for doing the same. Francoise Perrotton was guided by hope. But this hope was supported by her deep faith and love of the poor. True faith is not to have all the answers, but to live with the questions themselves.
The poetry writer Rainer Maria Rilke talks about 'living the questions' in the hope of one day living into the answers is Rainer Maria Rilke. He is a renowned Bohemian-Austrian poet, considered one of the most significant figures in German-language literature.
He wrote a collection of letters titled 'Letters to a Young Poet'. In Letter Number 4, written in 1903, Rilke advises the young poet to embrace uncertainty and doubt as an essential part of personal and creative growth. He encourages the idea of 'living the questions,' which means fully engaging with the complexities and uncertainties of life without rushing to find definite answers. Rilke believes that by living with and understanding the questions deeply, we can gradually come to a place where answers emerge naturally and authentically.
Here is an excerpt from the letter:
'...I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.'
Quote - There is in all visible things an invisible fecundity, a dimmed light, a meek namelessness, a hidden wholeness. - Thomas Merton (By A. D. - Marist Laity - from AUSTRALIA - 2023-7-27)
Mary - How does this content invite us to reflect on the significance of the hidden and unknown aspects of Jesus upbringing? (By A. D. - Marist Laity - from AUSTRALIA. - 2023-7-29)
Marist - I wonder how the content on this page resonates with JeanneMarie Chavoins commitment to the virtues of simplicity, humility, and hiddenness. (By A. D. - Marist Laity - from AUSTRALIA. - 2023-7-29)
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