The Little Things

With the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Christmas Eve, the Jubilee Year of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ will begin. The theme of this Holy Year proclaimed by Pope Francis is “Hope does not disappoint!” (Rom 5:5). Christ Himself is our hope; He Himself is the “holy door” which opens us to forgiveness and the only true life, the life of grace in God. And He will never disappoint us, “because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (ibid.). This great event which will be celebrated worldwide by millions of people marks the anniversary of a silent, hidden event which began very quietly nine months prior in an obscure village in Israel. “In the sixth month, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the Angel said, ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:26-28).

The work of the Redemption is first of all a work of God, in which He also involves both Angels and men. God, in His love and infinite mercy, is always the initiator. He comes to meet us in our misery and our incapacity to rise from sin. He sends His Angels as His messengers and servants, our fellow workers in the service of Christ the Redeemer. And this saving work of God is received and accepted through the “yes” of Mary, the “ecce” – “let it be done unto me according to your word” – spoken in the name of all by our “Mother in the order of grace”.

Embracing God’s salvific will with a full heart and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of Almighty God, serving the mystery of Redemption. Rightly therefore the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience. (Vat. II, Lumen gentium 56)

Like Mary, each of us is called to participate in the work of salvation through this same faith and obedient surrender to the Divine will, each serving in his proper place according to God’s plan. “The laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and wonderfully prepared so that ever more abundant fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them” (Lumen Gentium 34). For most of us, this means living out the simple duties of daily life in the spirit of the Gospels.

For all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit—and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne—all these become “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). (LG 34)

Both the call and the capacity to serve Christ are based on our union with Him in grace, that is, on His Spirit working within us. By the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, we participate in the Divine Nature, such that, one with Christ, we truly participate in His sanctifying mission. “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone” (1 Cor 12:4-6). To follow Christ, we must continually seek an ever greater union with Him, conforming our lives to His life, in order to let Him live and act in and through us, until as St. Paul says, “No longer I live, but Christ in me” (Gal 1:20). Mother Gabriele exhorts us:

O soul, chosen and favored by God, bear in mind constantly that your life, and that of the Lord Jesus, must be intimately united; there is no other way to become like unto Him and to follow Him. Accordingly, you must become a child with the Child Jesus. You must learn to understand and to love the grandeur, beauty and tragedy of the childhood of Jesus and to assimilate those mysteries into your own life. You must comprehend Jesus’ years of teaching and wandering and let them take shape within you. You must love with your Lord, suffer with Him and never abandon Him, not even on Golgotha. (Way of the Cross, Childhood of Jesus)

In this Advent and Christmas Season, therefore, we want recollect ourselves in silence and simply look upon and learn from the life of the Child Jesus within the Holy Family. Let us follow Jesus, Mary and Joseph with the contemplative gaze of our hearts from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

The Annunciation

We cannot fathom the depth of the sacrifice involved in the “yes” of Mary to God’s call through the Angel. She well knew Isaiah’s prophecies of the “Suffering Servant”, that He would be “spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, …smitten for the sin of His people, …though He had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood” (Is 53:3, 8-9). Mary keenly understood that her whole life would change by her yes, that she would be wholly surrendered and taken up by this great work of God. Mother Gabriele writes in a Way of the Cross for Advent:

A light like a pointed sword penetrates to the Heart of the Virgin, as the holy Archangel Gabriel speaks to her. God enters into the Virgin by way of man’s highest faculties: intellect, heart and will. She has to voluntarily consent to totally delivering her body and life up to God. Mary sees very clearly, even as once the Angel had seen very clearly, what is at stake and what immense weight the decision carries: “Are you willing to accept?” This is the first station: the unconditional offering of body and soul, intellect and will in order to become God’s instrument.

God does not do things by halves. In quietude and hiddenness, Mary prepares herself for the Way of the Cross, which will fill her life. She prays practically day and night. For there will be a time when she has to walk over the sharp stones of the fulfillment of all prophecies. She does not delude herself; in the grace-filled strength of the Holy Spirit she understands the truth and magnitude, the inexorable coherence of the word of God concerning the Incarnate Word. This is the second station: rising and going, the acceptance of the way of the Cross, the purposeful preparation for the great bringing of the Redeemer, without looking either to the left or to the right, in silence, loving inwardly. (The Burden of God)

And nevertheless, despite all the painful forebodings of a life of sacrifice and sorrow, with her yes, Mary was most certainly filled with a great joy, awe and peace at the Incarnation of the Son of God, now her Son! “Rejoice, O daughter Zion, behold your King is come!” (cf. Zech 9:9). Into the darkness of the world around her, enslaved by sin, Emmanuel has come, “God with us”, who will save us from our sin. “Rise up in splendor! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you…. Your sons come from afar, and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow!” (Is 60:1, 4b-5a). What joy, God has come to save His people!

Thus, like Mary as she began this new way with the Lord within, Advent is for us a silent time, a time of reflection and penance, but also a time of quiet, expectant joy! God has come, He is with us and within us! He wills to pour out grace upon grace, to give us a new beginning. With every yes to sacrifice, to renunciation or hardship, to every Cross, His grace will fill our souls and give us the courage and strength to carry out His will for our lives with peace and joy. And this joy is real and palpable, if only perhaps—due to the weight of the Cross in our lives—in the very depths of our souls.

Obeying the word of the Angel in serving love

By the word of St. Gabriel, Mary knew that her elderly cousin was expecting. As a young, inexperienced girl, human reason would justify putting off such a journey: What could she do to help? Elizabeth, as wife of a priest, certainly has servants. And such a long journey! After all, she herself was now expecting. – Mary, however, has no such thoughts. Rather, she sees in the message of the Angel the call of God, and she immediately sets out. And behold, through her obedience, John the Precursor is sanctified in the womb in preparation for his mission. “For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy!” Elizabeth rejoices. And what a joy it was for Mary to hear that Elisabeth shared in “her secret”. “How does this happen to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? …Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Lk 2:43-45). Again, it is through faith and humble obedience that the mysterious and wonderful plans of God are carried out, which we could never achieve by human reason alone.

Like Mary (and Joseph), we want to learn to hear and follow the lead of the Angel. They are our guides on our pilgrimage of faith; but only in the silence of a purified and detached heart, a heart willing for sacrifice, will we learn to hear their call. In the Compendium to the Catechism we read,

As in the vision of Jacob’s ladder—“God’s messengers were going up and down on it” (Genesis 28:12)—the Angels are energetic and tireless messengers who connect heaven to earth. Between God and mankind there is not silence or a lack of communication, but a continual conversation, a ceaseless personal exchange. Men, to whom this communication is addressed, have to sharpen their spiritual ear to hear and understand this angelic language which prompts good words, holy sentiments, acts of mercy, charitable behavior, and edifying relationships. (Commentary on image found on p. 178)

“As on a sick-call [Mary] brings the Son of God to the servant of God, to the precursor. And John, still unborn, arises and professes his ‘Adsum Domine!’ Mary carries the Lord; Elizabeth, the servant. However, Mary has come to serve like a handmaid” (The Burden of God). In all humility, Mary lends a hand in any way she can. She does not expect honors as the Mother of the Messiah. She remains a simple handmaid.

In the house of Elizabeth there is no wealth. For she is very charitable, a mother to all the poor and the oppressed, and every day she empties the bushel and the cupboard to alleviate their misery. Thus Mary lives in utmost simplicity and gives Elizabeth a helping hand; she helps her bear the burden, serve and work. The less Elizabeth is able to do, the more work Mary takes upon herself, for need cannot be postponed. Here, Mary comes to know better and more concretely the real need of Redemption than in the sheltered home of her parents as the youngest of the family. She learns to weep with the weeping, to hunger with the hungry, to wash and dress wounds. This is the seventh station: not to shy away but to help everywhere and to cast into the abysses of sin the light of intercession and expiation. (ibid.)

Visiting the elderly and lonely in a nursing home – even if we do not know them personally – providing a Christmas dinner for a poor family, driving someone homebound to a doctor’s appointment or cleaning their home: how many ways we can bring the light of Our Lord’s love and salvation to the hearts of those around us. Even a cheerful smile or an encouraging word to those nearest to us, when offered to the Lord in the hiddenness of our hearts out of love, can spread the light of the Redemption in a far greater way than any simply human action. The Angel will show us the way. If we are silent and open, and especially through the Consecration to the holy Guardian Angel, we will learn to hear and obey the call of God, and what “great things” (Magnificat!) the Lord will do in and through us!

The road to Bethlehem

The birth of John the Baptist was accompanied by great joy and mysterious signs. “Fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea… ‘What, then, will this child be?’” (Lk 1:64-65). But Mary, having accomplished her task, makes her way slowly and now even more laboriously back to Nazareth. Joseph has already struggled through his heart-rending trial of uncertainty and is instructed by the Angel to take Mary into his home (cf. Mt 1:20). Once again, however, they face the trial of obedience, this time to secular authority.

Mary goes with Joseph. But no sooner have they arrived in Nazareth than the summons of the Roman Emperor is issued. There is no way about it, Joseph has to go to Bethlehem, the City of David, and Mary must accompany him. Anyone else would get angry, saying: Now a few days more or less makes no difference. Any other woman would say:  Now I simply cannot take any more. However, both remain silent, both pray, both get ready for the trip. They rise and go. …The sins of both irascibility and sloth are leveled, as it were, with each step of Joseph’s care for Mary, with each of Mary’s toilsome little steps, so that the Little King of Heaven and Earth in His sedan can be borne over them….

The way is arduous and long. Many carts and groups of people are underway. They often push the holy couple off the way. St. Joseph makes detours, they sleep in the open air. Mary suffers from the cold, Joseph gives her everything he can possibly do without. Expiation for all immoderation, all disorder, for all impurity has to make straight the path for the coming Redeemer, has to fill up every abyss and crack and crevice. O pure body of Mary, not touched nor dishonored by sin, thus you make your tenth station.

We see that Mary and Joseph, both of the royal tribe of David, are not crowned with honors and privileges, but endure the simple challenges of the daily life of the poor and the lowly: hardship, disdain, even false condemnation. Thus they cooperate with all their heart, mind and strength, by patience and expiatory sacrifice, in the work of the tiny Redeemer whom they accompany to His birth. When they finally arrive in Bethlehem:

The doors are locked. Here dwells avarice, there dwells envy, everywhere dwells selfishness. A woman about to give birth is regarded as unclean by the Jews. The place and the inhabitants would have to undergo purification. This is too much trouble, no one is up to this. They tell it straight to Mary’s face, is she perhaps a foreigner that she does not know this? Why didn’t she make any provisions? They tell her it would be best to go outside the walls of the city and not bother anyone. The house of David no longer enjoys any esteem these days. Gold and positions of honor rate high. Thus Joseph and Mary go away. …Not one person goes with them. But the Angel leads the way.

Praying unceasingly, they live in dark faith and sacrificial readiness, seeking only to fulfill the will of God – which the Angel makes known to them – to the glory God and out of love for Him. He alone reigns in their hearts, with no second throne set up for their own egos. When confronted with trials, struggles and adversities, they give to God out of love without complaint, persevering under the weight of the Cross, fully trusting that He will fulfill His promises. Detached from all earthly goals and concerns, they maintain their peace of heart even in trial. They strive only to fulfill His will – yes, even with joy, conscious of the presence of the tiny, but mighty Redeemer!

God carries out His plan

The Gospel portrays the birth of Our Lord in the stable so matter of factly, almost dryly: “While they were there, the time came for her to have her Child, and she gave birth to her firstborn Son. She wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn” (Lk 2-3). Certainly it was our Blessed Mother herself who recounts this circumstance to St. Luke, in no way dramatizing what she had to suffer. And we are so accustomed to the warm, romantic Christmas crèche displays, that we easily forget the hardship which preceded this most holy event. Mother Gabriele gives us a better idea of what this trial really entailed for a woman of that time:

The sin of pride is the worst. That is why Mary has to descend to the lowest regions of what is humanly possible. She must give birth to her Child in a stable, something which is normally done only by women while fleeing abroad or living outside the law. The sober love of God stretches out Mary with her Child in this depth as the only bridge from the abyss of pride to reconciliation with God. There is no other way from that abyss, Lucifer’s abode, to God, except over the Mother in this lowliness and her Divine Child in the midst of the animals, the poor shepherds and beggars. (The Burden of God)

And what must have been the distress of St. Joseph, he who was charged to protect and provide for the Holy Virgin and her Unborn Child, when he saw the cold, dark cave before him as the only option? How his heart must have sunk! Yet he is not overcome by setbacks; he gets to work. Pope Francis wonderfully describes St. Joseph’s painful challenges, “creative courage” and faith in God’s loving Providence, and how St. Joseph teaches us this same faith and courage, even when people or circumstances seem to be against us:

The spiritual path that Joseph traces for us is not one that explains [difficult circumstances], but accepts.… A superficial reading of these stories can often give the impression that the world is at the mercy of the strong and mighty, but the “good news” of the Gospel consists in showing that, for all the arrogance and violence of worldly powers, God always finds a way to carry out His saving plan. (Apost. Letter, Patris corde 5)

Every grace is preceded by the Cross, St. Theresa of Avila teaches, and a great grace by a great Cross. Mary and Joseph walked the simple way of acceptance with faith, trusting that God would carry out His work, despite all the obstacles. Because they did not seek their own will in all that had happened, but only the will of God, they were certain that His will would carry them. Tried to the utmost, in silence and constant prayer they could perceive the presence and hand of God. “Be still and know that I am God” the Psalmist writes, “The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge!” (Ps 46:10-11). They did not become bitter with the people of Bethlehem who would not receive them, but accepted it as God’s will. They were not grudging at the harsh treatment or rude comments, but rather prayed all the more for their People, “Come, Lord, and set us free!”

The Holy Night

What was that great moment like in the darkness of the cave: the stillness, the solitude, the warm breathing of the animals? We can only imagine. Joseph, having found some hay and carefully laying all the blankets they had upon it, perhaps kept watch outside in the cold, praying and beseeching God’s mercy with an anxious, restless heart. No, he did not sleep as the Apostles would later do in the garden. Mary, with no human assistance, but surely surrounded by the watchful care of the Angels, falls into ecstasy – all the Church Fathers agree, the birth of Our Lord was a mysterious, miraculous birth, safe-guarding her virginity – awaking only to see her Child lying in the folds of her mantle. Ever so gently she wraps Him in the swaddling clothes and presses Him to her breast to nurse before laying Him in the manger to sleep – then kneels in blissful adoration before His radiant Face. And Our Divine Savior is greeted only by the cold, the darkness, the silence of the night. But what joy to see His Mother with His own human eyes! Joseph reverently asks if he may enter and falls to His knees in awe and wonder, before taking the Divine Child also into his arms.

All around, on all sides, the holy Angels peer eagerly into these great mysteries (cf. 1 Pet 1:12), prostrate in adoration! At God’s summons they hasten to the nearby fields, to make known the “good news of great joy” – not to Kings, not to the priests – but to the lowly shepherds, to the poor and the beggars. “Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom that He promised to those who love Him?” (James 2:5). And now “a multitude of the heavenly host” gives voice to their overflowing jubilation, announcing to the little ones and the poor of spirit, their Savior has come! “Glory to God in the highest and peace to men of good will!” (Lk 2:13-14).

Fidelity in daily life

In these simple meditations, we have seen how God uses both little and larger trials, all our joys and duties and sacrifices, the normal everyday life of those of good will for His plans of salvation. We do not need to understand why we must suffer this or that, or why God has placed us in precisely this task or situation; we need only to trust and to give ourselves wholly to God’s plan out of love. “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). Even our sins and weaknesses, if confessed in sincerity, can lead to our greater spiritual progress.

God foresees what is for our salvation, even if we do not understand His plans. Even Mary did not know beforehand her role in the future and in the whole history of salvation. But she accepted the call of God to go the way of motherhood with simple willingness in her “ecce ancilla Domini, fiat mihi secundum verbum Tuum”. And she prompts us, time and again, to speak this Fiat, every time God calls us to love, to sacrifice. God also calls us in every Holy Communion to receive Him into ourselves lovingly, so that He can transform us into “another Mary,” a mirror of Mary, so that we may carry Him out into life to those who need Him, to those in affliction and doubt, to the straying and those far from God. (Mother Gabriele, Children’s Letters 39)

Then on Christmas Day, we will be able to kneel joyfully before the manger with Mary and Joseph, with the simple and the poor of spirit, and adore and thank!

Sr. Maria Basilea