Vigils Reading

A HIDDEN GOD

By Edward Leen

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Everybody knows that the call of the Magi typifies the vocation of the

Gentiles to the Church of God. But to penetrate more deeply into this mystery

and to read therein an experience common to a multitude of souls demand a

deeper understanding of God’s way of manifesting himself to his creatures, and

a keener discernment of his action in human souls.

God is a hidden God, and must be so for us. He manifests himself

obscurely. God does not hide himself from us purposely or to make approach to

him more difficult. He desires revelation of himself to us, and approach to him

on our part. God in his approach to us but tempters his brilliancy to

accommodate it to our weak and diseased spiritual vision. He, as it were, takes

care not to hurt our soul’s sight. But he aims at revelation through dimmed

radiance. The incarnation, which is the utmost concealment of the Godhead

that there is, or that can be — except that of the Eucharist alone — is the greatest

revelation of God.

That we are dull of perception is certainly not due to the mode in which

God reveals himself, but must be traceable to our fault. It is the poor quality of

our faith that is responsible for this dullness. We do not take God on his own

conditions. We are always given to imposing ours on him. We have a tendency

to decide for ourselves what shall be the sensible exterior vesture of God’s

message. We clothe that message with a garment woven of our own ideas and

imaginings, and we reject the material selected by God himself for his

revelation.

Not so the wise men. They took God on his own terms. We choose a

certain mode for his manifestation, and they acknowledged him as God in the

lowliness of the guise in which he appeared. They looked on a babe and they said

God. Their faith was superb.

That the three wise men were able to discern in the form of a helpless

babe, lying in an earthly Mother’s frail arms, under a miserable roof, the king of

kings, the great redeemer of the human race that had been spoken of in

prophecy for centuries before, was a truly marvelous thing…

The wonderful faith of these men passes all belief. Their appearance in the

pages of Saint Matthew is like a sudden burst of glorious sunshine, breaking in a

flood of glory, through a sky wrapped in a mantle of somber gray. And the star

went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was; and seeing

the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy…

As they saw the humble roof under which the child was, and as they

perceived the lowly simple conditions of his parents, were they taken aback?

Had they any misgivings? Were they harassed by any doubts?… It was the

supreme test to which they were put, and their magnificent faith triumphed

over all appearances. Their hearts responded loyally to the touch of grace, for

they were unprejudiced and ready to concede to God whatever form he should

choose for his manifestation.