Because the Blessed Virgin calmly accepted being Lesser without any question, God made her more, much more…
I have recently been reading about Saint James the Lesser.
Saint James the Lesser was called the cousin of Christ.
Of all the Twelve Apostles to whom God appeared after his Resurrection, it was to James the Lesser, His cousin, who was also called James the Just, to whom the risen Christ first appeared. It was to both Saint James the Lesser, and his brother Saint Jude to whom Christ entrusted His Church in Jerusalem.
In the second year of His public ministry, Saint James the Lesser and Saint Jude began to follow Christ. Saint James was very well known for his life of prayer and holiness. There are descriptions of Saint James as spending so much time in prayer that his hands and knees became calloused from kneeling and praying. Saint James was the author of the New Testament epistle by the same name.
In the year 62AD Saint James was martyred by being thrown from the roof of the Jerusalem temple and then stoned and beaten to death. Saint James prayed for his murders as he died.
And I have been thinking about this Saint, Saint James the Lesser, and I have been thinking about his name as the “Lesser”… You see, there were two James among the followers of Christ, and of the two, this Saint was called the Lesser.
Perhaps it was because he was smaller in stature and therefore, this was a way to identify one James from the other.
But whether it was because he was a shorter man, or whether it was because he was “Lesser” in some other way, Saint James is known – two thousand years after his death – as the “Lesser”.
And I have been thinking about this today. You see, there is such clarity in understanding that I am lesser. So much of this lifetime is spent trying to push myself ahead. So much of this lifetime is about trying to make myself more. So much is about standing out and showing off. Making more money, gaining more success. Becoming more well known.
And it occurs to me today that everything is backwards. You see, the Blessed Virgin was not more – she was less. And in the less she was MADE more. And what I mean by this is that the Blessed Virgin was poor and alone and displaced. She was a poor Jewish widow in a world that completely devalued Judaism, women and widowhood. And because she did not resist any of this – because she calmly accepted this without any concern – God made the Blessed Virgin more, much more…
And it is the same with the Saints. How many of them were hermits and the poor? How many lived lives of solitude inside monasteries and convents? How many spent most of their Earthly lives being silent and holding still?
And for this stillness – in making themselves lesser – God has made them more in eternity. And today, when I think about that, it seems to me that all this time I have been struggling against being lesser, I really should have embraced it – because it is only in being lesser that God can ever make me more!
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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