Hidden

A man named Rob from the R&P wrote a really interesting thread in which he described his experience of watching the Disney movie "Hunchback of Notre Dame." As a protestant, he was basically horrified when he watched the film with "adult" eyes, noticing that there was a good deal of attention paid to Mary throughout the film. He was disturbed in particular by a statue of Mary wearing a crown and holding a sword, presenting the infant Jesus to the people. We demonstrated the biblical nature of the scene the statue depicted (Rev 12:1 and 11:15-19) but also reminded him that he was bothered by the presentation of Christ as an infant because for Him, it was MORE important that Christ be depicted as powerful, glorious... GOD, not powerful, glorious God hidden in the Christ child.

This set me thinking twice as hard about today's reading in Divine Intimacy, my book of Carmelite spiritual direction. You can read today's reading at this link. (http://www.catholic-pages.com/prayers/116.asp) The reading today was titled "To be hidden with Christ in God," and centered around the idea of hiding ourselves away from what the world would call "glory" to find ourselves, little, nothing, empty, and IN the heart of God.

A friend of mine had read the meditation and was completely opposed to everything she had read. She disagreed so strongly with it that she was surprised that I liked it, and wanted me to read it through and discuss it with her. So, here are some of my thoughts on the hiddenness of God.

The reason the statues of Mary holding the infant Jesus bother people like Rob is because He cannot visually SEE the glory of God in the statue. He feels it somehow belittles God, or makes of God less than He is. But for me, that statue is more humbling than any depiction that portrays God as powerful, earth-shattering, glorious and overwhelming. Why?

Part of it is because I KNOW who God is. When I look at that infant Jesus, I am totally humbled by His own humility. By His hiddenness. As a Catholic, I think I have a healthier sense of God's actual humility now than I did as a protestant. While I was always being taught about the glory and majesty of God, I very rarely was presented with food for thought on the hiddenness and UTTER humiliation of God.
In fact, for Catholics, it's much easier to appreciate God's hiddenness because we have the Eucharist. What greater sign of God's incredible love for us than His willingness to submit to coming to us in a piece of bread and a cup of wine? When we sit at adoration (when we gaze upon the Lord in the Eucharist in what we call a "monstrance" --- a large, metal object created to display the Eucharist--- I know I am thinking of His incredible humility and His willingness to be WITH us at all costs. I've said before that Catholics seem to understand the incarnation better because of the Eucharist, but more than that, I think the Eucharist is such a sign to us to remind us of the need for unity in Him and not in the "things of this World." If God can come to me as a little baby, as a piece of bread, then how do I know I will not encounter Him in everything I see and touch and taste? St Therese called the Lord in the Eucharist the "Prisoner of Love."

More importantly, this humiliation that he endures in no way REMOVES His glory-- it only amplifies it. The meditation in Divine Intimacy talks of this:

The practice of the hidden life has, therefore, two aspects: the first, negative and mostly exterior, consists in hiding ourselves from the eyes of others and even from our own and in dying to glory and worldly honours. The second, which is positive and entirely interior, consists in concentrating on God in a life of intimate relations with Him. The first aspect is the condition and measure of the second: the more a soul is able to hide from creatures, and even from itself, the more capable it will be of living "with Christ in God", according to the beautiful expression of St Paul: "You are dead: and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3,3).


You see, the point of this life is not, as I thought when I was a protestant, to simply get into heaven. Nor is it to only serve God. What God wants from us, what He created us for, is UNION with Him-- a blessed marriage feast in which we delight in each other and share in the love relationship of the Blessed Trinity. (those who have read the book THE SHACK saw a beautiful depiction of this relationship that should help you in seeing the "big picture" God has prepared.)
The purpose of the Carmelite walk has always been to achieve that perfect Union with Him, and the author of the Divine Intimacy, Fr Gabriel of Mary Magdalen, OCD, was an eagerly sought after spiritual director. He knew that before we could have lofty dreams of Glory in the Lord, we must have dreams of being virtually erased from sight and even from our own affections, so that in that disappearance we would be freed to enjoy God completely and to make His will our own. We will truly have mortified the flesh. Thus, when he (by the countless other Carmelite saints who offer the same advice) suggests serving in silence, quietly giving to those who don't deserve it, disappearing into the sea of faces, becoming invisible and unknown.... Thus the soul

(...) no longer wastes its energy looking for esteem or human satisfactions; from this point of view creatures have become as nothing to it. It can say that "created things, its own as well as others', no longer give it the least worry or trouble; it is just as if they did not exist" (T.M Sp). Thus the soul arrives at that sovereign liberty of spirit which permits it to concentrate itself wholly upon God. Exteriorly its conduct shows nothing extraordinary, or rather, the very care it takes to hide from the eyes of others makes it very often go unnoticed, and most people consider it a soul of little worth. But in its secret heart a very rich interior life, known only to God, is developing.

THIS is the example of Christ. This is what Christ did. He was God, but He lived as a man. He obeyed his earthly parents. He allowed himself to be tortured and killed. He was utterly humiliated, and yet during the course of this life, He was living out an amazing love story with his People and with the other members of the Holy Trinity.

Carmelites have had this wisdom since the beginning, it is as ingrained in Carmelite Spirituality as the Scapular which represents this contemplative life. And it is no wonder, then, that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the one who gave us both Carmelite spirituality AND the Carmelite Order, is the one who is so bothering our dear friend Rob in this R&P thread. She presents Christ to us in the way that she knows will perfect us and bring us to the fastest holiness.

This hidden quality of God which He asks us to imitate is a far cry from the TBN preachers and megachurch-with-superstar-senior-pastor syndromes of today. This hidden quality is what St John of the Cross was telling me two days ago when I was seeking direction for a few things that were going on in my life. The irony is that this hidden quality is about as contrary to my human nature as it gets-- I admit that I love recognition and one of the hardest things for me is to feel like I'm not "successful" in the eyes of the world. And yet:

Exteriorly its conduct shows nothing extraordinary, or rather, the very care it takes to hide from the eyes of others makes it very often go unnoticed, and most people consider it a soul of little worth.

Hopefully, this is why God has called me to Carmel. And as for Rob and his frustration, I am thankful-- so thankful-- that God has shown me why there is something absolutely breathtaking about a statue that depicts my Jesus as a child.