Seed life: Healthy roots

Wednesday of XI / OT: Daily readings

The Gospel seems to highlight a precious part of our life, probably one that we do not pay much attention: the "hidden" life. Like the seed, that once is planted spends most of its life hidden in the ground so is my relationship with God is fostered and nurtured in the "hidden" room. And it is here, in this "hidden" part, that the great miracle happens.

Our society values the extroverted dimension of life: we share our thoughts, change our status on our social network pages, get tweets so that we let people know immediately what is going on with us. Nowadays, whenever we are asked to be quiet and introverted, meditative, we struggle as fish outside water.

Today, I feel invited by the Father to return to the "hidden" room, making sure that I can be my truer self, knowing that He is watching me. And God values more what goes on here, in teh secret room of my heart, because what He really cares about is.. me. Just like a plant, in order to be healthy, has to have good roots able to support the stem, I have to make sure that my "hidden" life is strong enough. The risk is evident: I can become a hypocrite, one who pretends to be someone who is not. Yuck!

The eyes of the Lover are not far from where the Beloved is. The Father is always looking at us, not scrutinizing us or controlling us, but with loving gaze. He looks at us in order to find the truth. By allowing God to see my heart, I grow in freedom; I am free to be who I am, to acknowledge my shortcomings and be able to do something about it. 

I know how I can take care of my "hidden" life. Fasting, alms giving and prayer. It's a three-part movement towards wholeness and holiness. I take something from myself in order to give it to another. It can be the temptation of saying "the last word," the unkind gesture or look, or even time that I wanted to use for myself. I give it to the other out of love. In doing so, I love Jesus in the other, turning everything into small acts of love for Him. 

This is the time when I become more transparent with the Father who sees what's in my heart.