Hidden

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” (Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Act 3 Scene 3).

Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Gathering and Protecting Mankind (FRans Floris)

Someone said to me the other day that they knew that someone was a good person because it was obvious.

And that has caused me to reflect a little bit over the last few days.

When I was a school girl, I studied a play called, “Hamlet”.  It is a very famous play, written by William Shakespeare and is studied by school children who wish to understand the genre of classical tragedy.  In a classical or Shakespearean tragedy, the tragic hero is a good or noble man who has some flaw that contributes to his own demise.  In “Hamlet”, the tragedy’s hero, Hamlet, has the tragic flaw of procrastination and therefore reflects on everything but fails to actually do anything until it is all too late, which means that the villain has time to act first, which leads to the eventual murder of Hamlet and everyone who he loves and holds dear.

There is a pivotal scene in the play in Act 3 Scene 3, where the villain, Polonius appears to be in the chapel praying.  Because he is apparently being “good” Hamlet decides not to execute him because he only wishes to execute Polonius when he is full of sin and therefore will suffer eternally for his crimes.  In fact – in a twist of beautiful dramatic irony – Polonius was not praying at all but was reflecting on his crimes during that scene, and famously declares, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

And I have been reflecting on that today as I have recalled the words of little Saint Jacinta of Fatima.  Once, there was a priest who was a very talented orator and gave wonderful homilies that the parish and congregation would marvel over and admire.  The little Saint when hearing this praise said, that is not a good priest.  And – in proof of her point – some weeks later that same priest left the priesthood and began to live a very sinful life.

And this is just another example of the difference between what we can perceive in another soul and what is hidden there…

God is not always visible.  Sometimes, when things are most terrible and suffering is the greatest and people feel most alone, that is when the Hidden God is at the centre of the event.  There is a lovely story called “The Shack” which is a fictional account of a grieving man spending time with God the Holy Trinity.  In the story, God the Son if often excusing Himself from conversation as He is working on something in His workshop.  By the end of the story the “something” had become apparent – Christ had been crafting a coffin to place the grieving man’s daughter into so that he could bury her and lay her to rest.

And when I think about the metaphor of that story, I am quite overcome, because it seems to me that every single time I feel alone my God is right there working solely for me, HIDDEN, in plain view…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.