In the context of Christian worship, there are always two important, distinct elements: things revealed and things hidden. This is the reason, for example, that certain holy things are veiled, with those veils being removed only at certain times and in certain circumstances. Something that was hidden is then revealed. Very often, the revealed things are an entry point. Through the things revealed, we enter more and more deeply into things previously hidden. As we seek God more and more, we find more and more of Him. As we knock at the door of deeper and deeper hidden things, those same realities are opened to us. We are invited into greater and greater intimacy with our God, the All-Holy Trinity.
There are fundamental questions we must ask ourselves. First of all, we must always ask: "What is revealed and what is hidden?" Then, "why was this thing revealed? Why was it hidden?" Further, we must ask ourselves concerning the things hidden, which stand behind those things which are revealed. The things that God reveals to us, and the things that He hides from us are the substance of love.
What can be said about Christian worship generally is also true of the Holy Scriptures specifically. In the Scriptures, we find the same network (the warp and woof) of things revealed and things hidden. Just like in the context of worship, we allow our minds to prescind from things that God has revealed to the hidden things that those revealed things represent. In the Scriptures, as in worship, there is no limit to the depths into which God can call us. God summons us to greater and greater understanding, not because that understanding is the goal in itself, but because what is understood is the motive of our love.
In exactly the same way, the circumstances of our life in Christ are all composed of things revealed and things hidden. Today the handbook is talking about the active work of the Legion. It profits us immensely to remember that our corporal and spiritual works of mercy are liturgy (on the authority of no less a personage than St. John Chrysostom). Like all liturgy, our active work is composed of revealed things and hidden things. Even though your reports on your active work are concerned with the revealed things, allow your minds to ascend to the hidden things that are represented there. There are always hidden things attendant upon our works, and those hidden things are even more important than those things, which are revealed.
So, what things are hidden in the active work? First of all, the presence of the Most Holy Mother of God. In the context of the active work, we should strive with all our hearts and energy to remember her loving presence, assisting and blessing the work. Then too, we should be aware of the presence of her heavenly ministers, angels and saints that assist her and us in bringing all good works to fruition. Lastly, we should raise our minds to the Hidden Reality, God Himself, Whom we all together serve, and Who is assisting all of us together in ways that we are not even able to imagine.
The Revealed and the Hidden is a worldview that is based on faith. The world around us is today based on the scientific worldview. This worldview is fully confined to the spatial and temporal dimensions to which empirical science has access. It is little wonder that it does not understand worship and liturgy at all. Think of the well-known quotation from the Cure of Ars: "The eyes of the world see no further than this life; but the eyes of the Christian gaze deep into eternity." The scientific worldview does not admit of realities that are dimensionally different from the world we experience, because it has no access to them. It does not admit of things hidden. Worship and liturgy that are banal, that seem empty, are devoid of hidden things. Everything is revealed and therefore it is shallow. It is two-dimensional worship reflecting a two-dimensional gospel. Don't let your work be confined in this way. Use the eyes of faith to prescind to the hidden significance of everything that you do. Even if we utterly fail in our endeavors. These eyes of faith will reveal the hidden fruits.
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