May 20, 2023

Have you ever seen one of those Russian doll sets?  When you open the large wooden doll, there is a smaller one inside, and a smaller one inside of that doll, and so on, until you get to the final doll at the center.  I wonder if this is a good analogy for our spiritual lives: while we may play Russian doll with the various things we encounter in this world – unmasking them one layer at a time with our intellectual powers – we ourselves must learn how to be uncovered.  Indeed, our deep dignity is the doll at the center of this drama and our beloved is eager to find us beneath all of our stuff!  Our beloved, however, doesn’t just strip us down but allows us to participate in this process by inviting us through circumstances that, because we are willing to walk through them, slowly peel away our exterior.  The result is the grace of being seen for who we really are, a precious doll in the sight of her maker (Is 62:4-5).  Ave Crux, Spes Unica.