Knee-jerk reaction

The  knee-jerk reaction of  journalists. who retire after  spending a lifetime chasing the next headline, is to cast about for the next one.
Take it from us. We  who’ve spent over half  a century in this quest.
And  forget it.
The best thing is  to take instead  a  good  hard  look – and consider copying —  the silence that  Jesus spent in daily unnoticed  life  in the hick town of  Nazareth.
Anonymity and dull  routine  constituted most of his 33 years life.    His public life spanned only three years. And most of that is compressed to his teaching years and the week leading to his crucifixion as common criminal.
Many scholars, like Charles de Foucald,  have been captivated by those almost eighteen  years of silence.
He was captivated, like many others,  by Christ, growing up and working as an obscure carpenter.
The silent preaching Jesus did in His ordinary, day-to-day activities became something Charles wanted to emulate. It grew to be the context of his discipleship.
How many of us feel the similar tug to live a life of simplicity, being little and joyful, doing ordinary things out of love for God?
Jesus came to Nazareth, the place of the hidden life, of ordinary life, of family life, of prayer, work, obscurity, silent virtues practiced. No witness  other than God, his friends and neighbors. Nazareth, the place where most people, like us lead our  lives.
I think we can live the life of Nazareth anywhere, sink ourselves into hiddeness, live in obedience too.
It’s not just the next headline or officials  dodging Senate committee sanctions that really matter in the long run.
The life of Nazareth can be followed anywhere; in places where it is most helpful to your neighbors.
Nazareth is anywhere we work with in humility, poverty and silence.
After the Christmas nativity presentation and flight into Egypt, Christ and his family   withdrew to Nazareth. There, he  spent the years of childhood and youth, till he was thirty years of age and appeared in the Jordan.
Again, what was the meaning of that part of his preceding life? It meant continuous  instruction, not in words, but by silence and example, de Foucald suggests.
He was teaching all of us that it is possible to do good to men — great good — without using words, without preaching, without fuss, but by silence, goodness toward those about one, and domestic duties fulfilled without  griping The example of poverty, lowliness, recollection, withdrawal: the obscurity of a life hidden in God, a life of prayer, penance and withdrawal, completely lost in God, buried deep in Him.”
I was teaching you to live by the labor of your own hands, so as to be a burden on no one and to have something to give to the poor. And I was giving this way of life an incomparable beauty — the beauty of being a copy of mine, de Foucald  writes.
“And He went down with them, the evangelist Luke writes,” and came to Nazareth and was subject to them.
“He went down”: His whole life was spent in “going down.” He went down in the Incarnation, going down to be a small child, going down in obedience, in becoming poor, abandoned, exiled, persecuted, tortured, in always putting Himself in the lowest place.
“When thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place”: it is what He did Himself from the time of His coming into the feast of life till the time of His death. He came to Nazareth, the place of the hidden life, of ordinary family life: a life of prayer, work, and obscurity, the silent virtues, practiced with God, His close relations and His neighbors as its only witnesses. It was a humble, holy, obscure life of well-doing — the life of most human beings. For thirty years, He was our example of it.
“He was subject to them”: He, God, was subject to them, human beings, so becoming our example of obedience, humility and, in the real sense of the word, renunciation as infinite as His divinity.
The Feast of the Visitation, which commemorates when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1: 39-56), was very meaningful to Charles.
Even before I was born, I was working on this mission, the sanctification of man… and I urged my mother to work at it with Me.
Here and now I am saying to others: I tell them to sanctify souls by silently carrying Me among them.
To souls in silence, leading the work at it as my mother does; silently, without words
Universal Brother
Being a “Universal Brother” to everyone was essential to Charles’ understanding of the life of Nazareth.
From his writings:
There is always work to be done by example, goodness and prayer. We can enter into closer relationships with souls that are lukewarm or estranged  so as to lead them gradually, by the power of our patience, gentleness, and goodness, by the influence of virtue rather than advice, back to a more Christian life or to the faith itself.
I believe that there is no other Gospel teaching that had a more profound effect upon me and transformed my life more than the following: “All that you do to the least of these, you do to Me.” What strength we are driven to seek and love Jesus through these lesser ones, these sinners, these poor, by employing every material way as a means to soothe their temporal miseries.
Cherish them and regard their entry as the discovery of a great treasure. They are in fact the greatest treasure of all, Jesus Himself: Insofar as you do this to one of the least of these brothers, you do it to Me.
We are all children of God: we must therefore see the beloved children of God in all people, and not just in the good, not just in the Christians, not just in the saints, but in all people. They are all children of God and consequently we must show for all of them, in our thoughts, words, and actions, the tender, affectionate, loving behavior that a brother shows for his brother,
Such genuine fraternity among all people, all children of God, leads to tenderness in feelings, sweetness in words, and charity in actions that explain all the precepts of the Gospel concerning charity, peace and sweetness. Nothing is more natural than these precepts if all people are considered brothers and sisters, the children of the same Father.
WE must make people say this when they see me: “This man is so good that his religion must be good.” If someone asks me why I am gentle and good, I must reply, “Because I serve One who is so much better than I am. If only you knew how good my Master, Jesus, is.” I want to be so good that people will say, “If that is the servant, how, then, is the Master?”
For Charles, Jesus in the Holy Eucharist helped to reveal the mystery of Nazareth.
Lord Jesus, You are in the Holy Eucharist. You are there, a yard away in the tabernacle. Your Body, Your Soul, Your human Nature, Your Divinity, Your whole Being is there, in its twofold nature.
You were not nearer to the Blessed Virgin during the nine months she carried You in her womb than You are to me when You come in communion.