Friday October 20, 2017
“Nothing is covered that will not be uncovered, or hidden that will not be made known.” Everything becomes visible eventually. People who thought they took secrets with them to the grave would be surprised if they could see how much we knew! And secrets have ways of creeping even out of graves. So why make an absolute division between the inside and the outside? They are partners!
The heart is a fertile place; anything hidden there will grow for sure. If you can’t keep grass from growing up through your paths, you should take that as fair warning about the heart! It would be wise to ensure that only the best things are planted in that secret place: love, goodness, truth…. But very often it’s the bad things we hide, while we display all the good things. Anything displayed is scattered to the wind and never takes root. The terrible result is that only badness grows in us! This is shocking for a person who is used to being seen as good. So the division starts: the inside will be hidden forever, we think; only the outside will be seen from now on…. This is the lonely birth of hypocrisy. It’s understandable, given that we’re all very weak.
If only we could do the reverse: hide the good things and broadcast the bad…. That’s the wisdom of the sacrament of Reconciliation.
