THE MYSTERY OF THE SIMPLE AND HIDDEN LIFE
The simple and hidden life of Jesus in
"Having given this obedience
to your heavenly Father,
you wanted to lead
a hidden life,
completely subject to your foster father
and your holy mother,
until you reached the age of thirty.
Blessed are they
who enter profoundly
into the sublime mystery
of a life hidden
for so long,
the mystery of your adorable docility.
For thirty years you wanted to live
unknown to men,
submissive to your parents,
busy in the lowly tasks
of a carpenter shop.
You wanted to contain
within this lowliness
the inexpressible wonder
of your talents
which might have captivated
a whole world
and converted everyone
to God your Father.
There is at the heart of it all,
this mystery
which should fill us with delight.
The hidden and submissive life
must possess
sublime beauty
since you cherished it
so deeply
and lived it so long.
Good Jesus,
you devoted only
a little over three years
in the external ministries
of preaching
your holy Gospel.
The rest of your life you spent
in obedience
and in obscurity.
Blessed are they
who understand how to profit
from this example,
and love to be hidden
unless
the sheer necessity
of promoting God's glory
obliges them
to come forward.
Yes, blessed are they
who are not anxious
either to know
or to be known,
to understand
or to be understood,
to see
or to be seen,
but rather to love solitude
and hiddenness
in order to live in it
with Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Blessed are they
who are fully content
to know You
and to be known by You alone;
who understand
within this solitude,
how to lose themselves
in contemplation
of your wonders,
and who live out this divine communing
not only
in the privacy of a room or study,
but even in public
and in the midst of highest society.
Finally,blessed are they
who want to be always dependent
and who flee with extreme horror
any position that confers honour and authority.
Grant, good Jesus, that I may live
in these practices,
this solitude,
his dependence,
in order to be
dead to all creatures
and to live only in You,
with You,
and for You,
in the wondrous love
of your eternal Father."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, p.118-119)