MYSTERY OF JESUS’ HIDDENNESS & THE ROSARY
Article by Dr. Robert Ddamulira, OP.
Jan 04, 2025
On Sunday night, Dec 22 2024, the snow was falling here in Flint Michigan, when at about 11pm a young lady rang our front door bell. For a few long minutes, I contemplated on whether to get out of bed, dress up in something decent and go downstairs to check the door. An even smarter idea crossed my mind, check the doorbell camera recording on my cellphone instead. I saw the young lady and her daughter. She knocked on our door briefly, then daughter in hand walked she away. It seems they were at the wrong address. I went back to sleep.
A couple of days later am reflecting, had we just survived a robbery, or had we missed an opportunity to encounter God in body and flesh? This latter is true. I had failed to recognize and respond to the hiddenness of Jesus Christ. I had failed the same way those inn keepers at Bethlehem had missed their chance to witness the hiddenness of Christ, the biggest mystery humanity has ever known, when God became human.
The word "mystery" refers to the idea that what we believe is not the same as what we see. Reflecting on Pope Francis’s 2025 New Year Homily celebrating the solemnity of, Holy Mary, Mother of God. - I couldn’t help but reflect on his observation regarding the mystery of Jesus’ hiddenness.
There is a reason why decades of Hail Mary’s in the Rosary Prayer are marked by reflections on the “Mysteries” of our Catholic Faith. The Pope reflected on Jesus’ hiddenness at Nativity (3rd Joyful Mystery, Luke 2:7), for after witnessing the miraculous choirs of angels, the Shepards came to see just an ordinary mother, her baby and the baby’s father, St. Joseph (Lk 2:16). Contrary to popular medieval and contemporary nativity art - there was nothing extraordinary Jesus, his mother and father at the nativity scene.
Pope Francis observes that the Shepards “…found a tiny, helpless child in need of his mother’s care, clothing and milk, caresses and love. Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort tells us that divine Wisdom “while certainly able to, did not want to give himself directly to men, but chose to do so through the Blessed Virgin. Nor did he want to come into the world as a full-grown man, with no need of others, but as a small child, in need of a Mother’s care and nourishment” (Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 139). In the life of Jesus, we see that this is how God chooses to act: through littleness and hiddenness”
Jesus’ divinity was completely hidden to the Pharisees, Sadducees, Pilate and all the those who participated to execute his crucifixion (5th Sorrowful mystery, Luke 23:46).
Pope John Paul II noted that the Rosary is a compendium of the Gospels. I would like to add that the Rosary is a compendium of Jesus’ hiddenness. Through a weekly journey with Jesus of the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries, we journey with Christ and his hiddenness from birth to death and his resurrection. It’s the mystery of our faith; that unlike the Greek mythology character of Hercules who was half man and half god, Jesus chose to share fully our humanity while still fully divine. This is the mystery of our faith, one God three person, one Jesus two natures - fully human and fully divine. That requires repeating. The Mysteries of the Rosary provide us a prayerful pathway to deepen that understanding of the mystery of Jesus and his hiddenness.
Yet Jesus’ hiddenness continues in our day.
At the last supper when instituting the Holy Eucharist (5th Luminous Mystery (Luke 22:14-20), there was nothing extraordinary about the bread and wine. Yet He gave it to them saying, this is my body and blood, eat and drink it as often in remembrance of me. The bread and wine still taste the same, but Jesus through the Holy Eucharist has transformed their substance into his body and blood. This hiddenness of Christ still pervades Christian traditions to this day, for today 30-70% of Catholics sitting in church pews every Sunday do not believe in, transubstantiation, the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. To that significant portion of Catholics, Jesus is completely hidden; and to even a wider body of non-Catholic Christians who don’t celebrate the Eucharist, Jesus remains more hidden from them. Jesus remains hidden from us.
We can however choose to grow and sharpen our spiritual vision to see Jesus hidden in mysterious situations of our everyday lives. The next time, a stranger knocks on your door at an unexpected hour of the night, jump out of bed and run to the door as fast as you can. Provide them whatever help they need. You would rather be robbed striving to serve God rather than remain safe in bed and miss the opportunity to serve God himself. Turn your spiritual vision on, let 2025 be the first year for the rest of your life when you will no longer miss to see Jesus who is typically hidden in unexpected mysterious moments that demand our charitable response.
“For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” Matthew 25:35-37
Blessings.
