SECTION 2: FORMATION AND TESTING Chapter 2: Hidden and Unknown in this World
Please join in prayer:
Holy Spirit and Holy Mother, teach me what hidden and unknown in this world really means.
We fly to your patronage, O holy Mother of God, Despise not our petitions in our necessities, But deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin. Amen.
Does anyone have comments from the last chapter about the spirit of Mary?
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Scripture:
“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites. They neglect their appearance, so that they may appear to others to be fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.” Matthew 6:16-18
Church Documents: “Her (Mary’s) presence in the midst of Israel—a presence so discreet as to pass almost unnoticed by the eyes of her contemporaries—shone very clearly before the Eternal One, who had associated this hidden ‘daughter of Sion’ with the plan of salvation embracing the whole history of humanity.” John Paul II, Mother of the Redeemer, encyclical, 1987
Marist Documents: “Whatever we do, the value of our witness will be strengthened if we avoid drawing attention to ourselves, simply fitting in wherever we can be of service, seeking in return neither esteem nor acknowledgement. The personal inspiration of our Founders, “Hidden and unknown in the world”, forcibly recalls this ideal for us.” Marist Sisters’ Constitution
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THIS CHAPTER INCLUDES:
The Marist Touchstone What “Hidden and Unknown” is Not Submitting to Souls God Did It First
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THE MARIST TOUCHSTONE
In our continuing attempts to understand the spirit of Mary, we now consider another of the hows of being Marist. Father Jan Snijders, S.M., in The Age of Mary, calls the phrase “hidden and unknown in this world” the “main axis” of the Marist mission to the secularized world.
This phrase describes more than a devout way of life. It describes a manner of thinking and acting that has great meaning in our times, and it can be most effective in countering tendencies toward arrogance, sensationalism, status and recognition.
This topic is discussed at length in Like a Bridge on pages 75-79. We can stop for discussion anytime.
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Another reading in A Certain Way titled “The only way to do good,” page 56,also speaks to this topic.
This essay calls the phrase “hidden and unknown in this world” a touchstone, which means a standard or norm by which the genuineness of a thing is measured. In other words, it appears that unless a person lives and acts in this hidden and unknown manner, that person cannot claim to be Marist.
What do you think about this idea?
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WHAT “HIDDEN AND UNKNOWN” IS NOT
“Hidden and unknown in this world” is an expression that can be misunderstood. In Like a Bridge, we are told that in practice it may appear to be a barrier to doing good, but in fact it is not. Father Colin’s ideas about this possible misunderstanding were recorded for us by Father Gabriel-Claude Mayet, the first Marist historian. Father Mayet uses rather strong language.
May we be permitted to remark that Father did say unceasingly: “hidden and unknown”, but not “dead”. It is the hidden life that he praised, not a useless, sterile life; it is the nothingness of humility, of self-contempt, of modesty, not the nothingness of the tomb. While he repeated without ceasing “hidden and unknown”, he also repeated without ceasing that we are called, that we must offer ourselves, to do great things for God. More, he even made his “hidden and unknown” the true basis for great deeds. (A Certain Way, page 73)
(There is more information about Father Mayet in the first section ofA Certain Way.)
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SUBMITTING TO SOULS
The article in A Certain Way (“The only way to do good”) mentions another expression that Father Colin used often: “We must win souls by submitting to them.”
Basically, this expression means that we avoid struggles for power and domination over other people. Perhaps we can best study this idea by examining some of Father Colin’s strategies in a situation the early Marists faced. Using the word “strategy” to refer to “hidden and unknown” and “submitting to souls” may appear to be disrespectful. But it’s not. These phrases describe effective methods, or strategies, for evangelization and ministry.
The first Marists accepted the work of giving missions in a mountainous region of France where the Church had been damaged severely during and after the French Revolution.
The people were poor farmers. They had memories of priests who had come to the area in the past and behaved in a rather grand manner. These priests had made demands as to housing, meals and elaborate ceremonies. It had been a tradition that a large cross be planted in the ground in the village during the missions. All these demands created hardships for the people. The farmers needed to be in the fields in the summer time. They could see no good reason to have a mission in the first place, and they didn’t want to be bothered. They did not even want to provide basic housing and meals for the missioners. They were distrustful, fearful and disrespectful.
Father Colin simply submitted to the opinions and circumstances of the people. The missions were given in the winter, even though the cold caused much suffering for the priests. The priests did not ask the local people for anything. They brought everything they needed for the liturgy and the sacraments with them. They cooked for themselves and slept in whatever rooms, often unheated, they could find. Instead of scolding the people for their attitudes, the Marists complimented them. Instead of preaching hell and damnation, they preached God’s love.
In short, the first Marists deliberately avoided confrontations or power plays over things that were not important. When asked about how insistent to be about following the tradition of planting a large cross in the ground, Father Colin remarked: “As long as the cross is planted in people’s hearts, there is no need to plant it in the ground.” The Marist priests concentrated on the vital message of the Gospel.
In these ways the first Marists submitted to the people they served. The missions, held over a period of four to five years, were extremely successful. These Marists priests are credited with renewing the Church in this area of France.
In order to be successful using this strategy, Father Colin and his companion priests had to know these people well. They had to understand the difficulties the people faced and the historical events that contributed to their opinions and habits.
In a future chapter we will discuss further the importance of understanding the people around us.
How can Father Colin’s strategy of submitting to souls be effective in the world today?
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GOD DID IT FIRST
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Letter to the Philippians 2:6-8
In this well-known passage we are told that God stooped to the level of humankind. Can we imagine the artist becoming the painting? The potter becoming the vessel? The sculpture becoming the statue?
Yet, that’s exactly what God did. The Creator, who is above and beyond the created, deliberately accepted the limitations of the created. This is a mystery, of course—a mystery the Church calls the Incarnation.
God gave up rights, dignity, power, wealth, status, ambition, recognition. In other words, God’s plan for saving us included a deliberate action by God of giving up those things which truly belong only to God and which the world thinks are so very important. Jesus submitted to the designs of evil humans.
Can we understand that those who take the positions of being hidden and unknown in the world and winning souls by submitting to them are imitating Jesus?
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QUIET TIME
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Let’s review the Invitations for this chapter.
Closing Prayer: Holy Spirit and Holy Mother, help me recognize opportunities to be hidden and unknown in this world.
Thank you for coming and participating.
The Pondering Page for Quiet Time
Hidden and Unknown in This World
“A Marist should be an anonymous apostle, one who passes on the Word of God so quietly that as an individual he is quickly forgotten. He should leave no trace of himself except the soul saved, the wound healed, the truth taught, and Christ born again in the human heart.”
Stan Hosie, S. M., The Anonymous Apostle, a biography of Jean-Claude Colin, S. M. (page 94)
Let’s ask ourselves: How does my work as an apostle match this description?
INVITATIONS
Prayer:Pray every day: Holy Spirit and Holy Mother, help me recognize opportunities to be hidden and unknown in this world.
Reading: In A Certain Way, read “In this World,” on page 48.Not only have individual Marists received a mandate to live in a hidden and unknown way in the world, but so has the entire Marist family. How does an organization behave in a hidden and unknown way in the world?How do you think small groups of Marists can live this cornerstone of the Marist spirituality?
Action:
Have you ever studied the reflections of clouds, trees and shorelines on the surface of water? Did you concentrate on the reflections or on the surface of the water?
Have you ever seen a rainbow? We see rainbows when multitudes of raindrops reflect light back toward us at certain angles. Yet we can’t see the raindrops at all. We probably don’t even think about the raindrops.
Most of us have been in a church that has stained-glass windows. We study the windows, of course. But have we ever observed the colors, separate from the window, washing over the interior of the church?
How many times have we seen light or beauty without noticing the instruments that brought these things to us?
Find ways this month to be an unnoticed instrument that brings God’s light to others.
Notice ways that other people behave this way. Record your thoughts and experiences.
Our Marist Ways . . . . . . include being inconspicuous about being Marist.
(Audio Available)
