THE DUTIES OF EACH MOMENT
From “Abandonment to Divine Providence” by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
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There are remarkably few extraordinary characteristics in the outward
events of the life of the most holy Virgin, at least there are none recorded in holy
Scripture. Her exterior life is represented as very ordinary and simple. She did
and suffered the same things that anyone in a similar state of life might do or suffer.
She goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth as her other relatives did. She took shelter
in a stable in consequence of her poverty. She returned to Nazareth from whence
she had been driven by the persecution of Herod, and lived there with Jesus and
Joseph, supporting themselves by the work of their hands. It was in this way that
the holy family gained their daily bread. But what a divine nourishment Mary and
Joseph received from this daily bread for the strengthening of their faith! It is like
a sacrament to sanctify all their moments. What treasures of grace lie concealed
in these moments filled, apparently, by the most ordinary events. That which is
visible might happen to anyone, but the invisible, discerned by faith, is no less than
God operating very great things… God reveals Himself to the humble under the
most lowly forms, but the proud, attaching themselves entirely to that which is
extrinsic, do not discover Him hidden beneath, and are sent empty away.
He who knows that a certain person in disguise is the king, behaves towards
him very differently to another who, only perceiving an ordinary man, treats him
accordingly. In the same way the soul that recognises the will of God in every
smallest event, and also in those that are most distressing and direful, receives all
with an equal joy, pleasure and respect. It throws open all its doors to receive with
honour what others fear and fly from with horror. The outward appearance may
be mean and contemptible, but beneath this abject garb the heart discovers and
honours the majesty of the king. The deeper the abasement of his entry in such a
guise and in secret the more does the heart become filled with love. Ah! how the
sight of God, poor and humble, lodged in a stable, lying on straw, weeping and
trembling, pierced the loving heart of Mary! Ask the inhabitants of Bethlehem
what they thought of the Child. You know what answer they gave, and how they
would have paid court to Him had He been lodged in a palace surrounded by the
state due to princes.
Then ask Mary and Joseph, the Magi and the Shepherds. They will tell you
that they found in this extreme poverty an indescribable tenderness, and an
infinite dignity worthy of the majesty of God. Faith is strengthened, increased and
enriched by those things that escape the senses; the less there is to see, the more
there is to believe…
Those souls that have this disposition adore God with redoubled love and
respect in each consecutive humiliating condition; nothing can hide Him from the
piercing eye of faith. The louder the senses proclaim that in this, or that, there is
no God; the more firmly do these souls clasp and embrace their “bundle of myrrh.”
Nothing daunts them, nothing disgusts them. Mary, when the apostles fled,
remained steadfast at the foot of the Cross. She owned Jesus as her Son when He
was disfigured with wounds, and covered with mud and spittle. The wounds that
disfigured Him made Him only more lovable and adorable in the eyes of this tender
Mother. The more awful were the blasphemies uttered against Him, so much the
deeper became her veneration and respect.
1 Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Abandonment to Divine Providence. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal
Library, 2001. 7, 17.3