Pondering Advent :: The Infinite in the Finite

 I was in San Diego last weekend to speak at an Advent retreat for Catholic homeschool mothers. I came away feeling refreshed and peaceful despite speaking either in groups or one-on-one for six hours straight. :) Part of that was the beautiful setting: Mission San Diego.

And part of that was thanks to the lovely hostess, Erica, whom I have known online for a decade but hadn't met in person until this event. She has a calming and joyful presence and did such a lovely job of coordinating the day. The ladies that attended were also welcoming and encouraging.

One of the talks I gave was called "The Infinite in the Finite": Simple Steps Toward Beauty in the Homeschool. It was about the power of nature journaling and picture study to orient the soul toward seeing God in his "minor and scattered appearances," in the ways he hides in the ordinary things of life.

Since it was an Advent retreat, I closed by tying that truth about God and about education to our Advent preparations. I am reading through Mother Loyola's First Communion with my children over breakfast, and we just finished a chapter that fit so well with the themes I was exploring for this talk that I decided to read aloud a large chunk of it to meditate upon.

I'd like to share an even longer section from that chapter with you here, as well as the excerpt from my talk that puts it in context. Friends, this chapter is SO good. And the next chapter is called "Bethlehem," which I remember fondly from our first read-through this book and can't wait to revisit again over the next couple weeks with my children. I hope it is as rich to contemplate for you as it was -- and has continued to be -- for me this season.

(And Sertillanges, whom I quote at the end, is a French-Catholic priest and Thomist. I used his spiritual classic The Intellectual Life heavily throughout my talk, which is why I brought him back in there in the conclusion. His book is wonderful for the mother who is trying to balance the various kinds of work she is called to while maintaining a quiet and contemplative spirit.)

Wishing you a blessed Advent!

~~~

From Mother Mary Loyola's First Communion:

How was it, then, that when [Jesus] came men not only refused to receive Him, but turned from Him with positive hatred, and handed Him over to the Gentiles to be put to a cruel and shameful death? How was this ? It was because the Jews had not prepared themselves for His coming. God had done His part and made all things ready. But they had not done theirs, and so they were not ready. What the Jews looked for was a King coming in power and greatness to establish an earthly kingdom — a mighty conqueror, who would deliver their nation from the Roman yoke, make them once more a free and prosperous people, and reward his followers with riches and honours. Had our Blessed Saviour come like this, He would have been welcome. But He came poor and humble, and they despised Him, saying, " Is not this the carpenter's son?" In spite of His wonderful works, they would not acknowledge Him, and when He left this world to return to His Father, out of the thousands who had heard His words and seen His miracles, there were only about five hundred who believed in Him. Does not this show us the danger of pride and wilfulness?

The Jews had no right to look for a Messiah so unlike Him, Whom the Prophets had called a worm and no man, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity." They had been told to expect, not a great conqueror ... but One Who would redeem them from sin and Hell, and show them the way to Heaven. It was a Redeemer like this that all faithful Jews were expecting. But these faithful ones were few in number compared with those who were full of dreams of an earthly royalty, and cared for nothing else. It is true that when our Lord came, many of the simpler sort, those whom the world despises, flocked after Him and heard Him gladly. But the chief priests and the rulers, the Scribes and Pharisees, rejected and hated Him. And at last they moved " the whole people" to cry out as with one voice, "Away with Him, crucify Him. His Blood be upon us and upon our children."

Instead of wishing we had been on earth at the time our Lord came, we may well thank God we were not living then, lest we should have been amongst those who turned against Him ...

When we think of the short time our Blessed Saviour spent on earth, and of the great work He came to do, we wonder why He began that work so late. Why for so many years He lived unknown, occupied with little household duties and the rough carpentering of an out-of-the-way village, instead of spending His whole Life in preaching and working miracles, training His Apostles and founding His Church. Why, when His Heart was so eager, did He wait so long? The best way to answer this question is to look a little closer into those years of the Hidden Life, and see if He was really waiting all that time. We shall find perhaps, that what looks to us like delay was in reality no delay at all.

Our Lord might have come from the Hand of God a perfect man, like Adam. He need not have been a little child, and have waited so many years before showing Himself to men. As soon as He appeared in the world, He might have attracted them to Himself by His preaching and miracles. But He did not choose to do this. He had a work to do first, a work of silent teaching, quite as important in His eyes as the public preaching of His after-life. Shall we see how He could do this, how He could teach and be silent too? ...

Passing through all the years of babyhood and childhood, He would sanctify them all, and leave us His example in them all. It is a Divine example, and therefore perfect. He was perfect as a Babe, and as a Child, as a Boy, and a Youth, no less than as a Man. Looking at Him in every stage of His blessed Childhood, each one of us can say, "Jesus was once just my age, and He would be my age that He might be an example to me."

His school is in Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth. We are all to go to Him there and take our places round Him. Surely it will be sweet to learn from a little Child, Who is God as well, and can help us by His grace to learn what He teaches. If we want lessons that interest us, what can be more interesting than to watch the Child God and see how He does this or that — how He obeys, how He prays, how He suffers.

We were wondering just now why He did not begin to teach as soon as He came into the world. And now we see that this is just what He did. He did not lose one minute. He did not wait till He was grown up, to say, " Learn of Me." He said it by His silent Lips and by His winning smile, as He lay quiet and patient upon the straw. He said it by the downcast Eyes and the tiny Hands so often joined in prayer, and by the little Feet that ran here and there at Mary's bidding.

The Jews of Our Lord's time were looking for a king. A Messiah that would lead and conquer. They weren't expecting to find Him in the small, the lowly, the out of the way, the hidden. And yet, there he was, fulfilling prophesies and leading us toward salvation in His quiet way in Bethlehem, in Nazareth.

The same is true today: We want to be ready to see him in the small, in the moments or sights that don't seem like they are teaching, in the places we don't expect.

Noticing God in the flower and in the gallery painting, in "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable" -- that prepares us to ponder Him in other hidden places: in the manger, on the Cross, on the altar in the Eucharist.

I will end here with a quote from Sertillanges:

"Hence, for the fully awakened soul, every truth is a meeting place; the sovereign Thought invites ours to the sublime meeting; shall we miss it?"

This Advent, do we want to miss God's call to us, or can we prime our hearts and our children's hearts to receive him in every truth we encounter, every way he manifests himself in the world? I hope you will join me in the practice of these finite steps toward the Infinite.