Reflections
“How did this come to him?"
This story is a reminder that Jesus, for most of his life, lived a hidden life among his poor neighbors. He was simply “the carpenter,” the son of Mary, with no apparent gifts or qualities to set him apart from his various kin. Blessed Charles de Foucauld (d. 1916), who spent some years living in the Holy Land, was so impressed with this fact that he conceived of a new form of religious life modeled precisely on this “hidden life” of Jesus, offering a silent witness to God’s love among his poor neighbors. We do not need to join the Little Brothers, nor do we need to move to the Holy Land, to live as Jesus did among his neighbors. Nazareth is wherever we are. But we can be a presence of God’s love in the space in which we find ourselves. And what about the children of God we encounter everyday in the form of our neighbors: the carpenter, the auto mechanic, the janitor? How many saints walk among us—unseen, unrecognized, yet bearing witness to God’s love and mercy? If only we had eyes to see.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2019