In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks to the crowds in parables. He liked to do that for a number of reasons and one of them spoke to me today. Even though the reading ends with the words: „Whoever has ears ought to hear!”, to understand the parable you need to stop listening with your ears and start listening with your heart. Sometimes we would like to get clear answers instead of going beyond what is obvious at first glance and finding the depth, in which God speaks to us. Words that recently accompanied us for the morning prayer, reflect this depth very well: „I will show you hidden things, hidden things you have not known.” „It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes” as the fox from the Little Prince used to say.
During the Chapter, I have the opportunity, together with capitulants, to take part in some organized trips. Last week I was in Castel Gandolfo, where you can now visit the beautiful gardens, which the popes used to stroll through. There I joined the Spanish group to catch up on my language and the thing that made us laugh, was a word overused by our Colombian guide. The Italian phrase „ovviamente”, which she repeated in every sentence means „obviously”. It sounded even more ridiculous when she used it while explaining the details of ancient Rome, which most of us had no idea about. How easy it is to take things for granted if we feel experts. However, given God’s perspective, we can say without exaggeration, that we do not have the slightest idea about what the world, life, death or faith are… Nothing should be obvious to us.
Yesterday, I set off to Rome, where I was only once before – 21 years ago (so I do not know if that even counts…) – but instead of going where most pilgrims went, carrying large crosses to pass through the Holy Door, I headed in the opposite direction to Trinita dei Monti. There, at the top of the Spanish Steps (which, ironically, were again renovated as 21 years ago!!) is a beautiful basilica, but it was also not the object of my visit. I went up to a small passage on the left side, where one wall there is a very important fresco – our Mater Admirabilis. I sat with her for a while and tried to see something more than an image of Mary combining contemplation and action. That „something more” can only be seen by a heart, which in the history of the fresco painted by our candidate in the days of St. Madeleine Sophie, can find a piece of it’s own story.
Yesterday I also had an incredible pleasure to see the chapel created by Marko Rupnik in the Jesuit Curia. His mosaics are stunning for me every time. This one shows the scene of the Incarnation and Nativity, one of the contemplations of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and its symbolism is extremely rich (described on a full page!). Apparently, however, someone did not like the fact, that there is no reference to the resurrection in the chapel, so the artist, being a bit malicious, made a small chicken hatching from the egg in one of the corners 😉 Inevitably, such situations will meet us in life if we keep expecting simple and immediate answers instead of looking for them in a reality, which is very complex, mysterious and, above all, not at all obvious.
