thirty years

Being reduced to nothing
is the most powerful means we have
of uniting ourselves to Jesus
and of doing good to others.
—Charles de Foucauld

I'm being reminded of so much recently. Today I thought of Charles de Foucauld, who made such a strong impression on me years ago. I remembered him today as I was thinking of Jesus' life, how we think of him as a kind of hero, with the crowds around him, with rulers feeling threatened by him, the center of attention. Yet so much of Jesus' preaching pointed to the small and poor and weak. The nobodies, who no one pays attention to. As an example he pointed to a child. Yet we have this image of Jesus himself as a hero or celebrity.

Brother Charles reminded me that Jesus' time in the limelight was actually very short, a small part of his life as "God with us." Most of Jesus' life, maybe thirty years, seems to have gone unnoticed. Like those little ones he pointed to.