Children say that, to win the game of hide-and-seek, a person has to begin seeking the hidden in those places where someone is least likely to be found – in the least obvious of places!
As Legion soldiers in the army of our Lady, we are asked in our apostolic works to be part of a constant hide-and-seek “game” where we are the “seekers” and the person of Jesus Christ is the one whom we are searching to locate. This is the implication of the Standing Instruction which challenges us to perform a substantial Legionary work “in such a fashion that, in those worked for and in one’s fellow-members, the Person of our Lord is once again seen and served by Mary, his Mother” (H, 109). It is precisely because the Legion assumes that Christ is being “seen and served” in those worked for that, in the Cardinal Points of the Legion (Chapter 39, Number 17), the Handbook asks the member not to approach an assignment as that between superior and inferior – or even between two equals, but always as inferiors toward a Superior – where the “Superior” is Christ-in-the-other and we, in the spirit of Mary, are the “lowly servants” of that Lord (cf. Lk 1:38).
Are we conscious of this “seeking” as we go about our assignments? Are we passionate about “finding” and loving Him hidden, no matter where?
Each time we attend Holy Mass, adore the Blessed Sacrament, and receive Holy Communion, we are given a wonderful training in seeing Christ in the humble. There in what appears to be the simplest of food is to be truly found Jesus, our Lord. There beneath the common taste of wheat and grape is Present the Holy Son of God! The surprise of His Presence there points to the surprise of His presence elsewhere, even in the “least of His brothers and sisters” (Mt 25:40).
Remembering this, we as Legionaries must exercise great caution before walking around or away from a place or a person we personally find repulsive, believing “there’s no way Jesus could be there!” Precisely then must we remember: Just as nothing and no one was beyond Jesus’ ability to go to, to help, and to love during His public ministry, so nothing and no one is beyond Jesus’ mercy to embrace even now. Informed by such wisdom, the Legion member should want to be with Him, even when it demands entering places and visiting people others – and even we ourselves – feel like avoiding.
A verse from “The Song of Songs” reads: “I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. . .” (Sol 3:2/RSV). This verse asserts that there is no more supreme task in life than searching to find the Lord for whom our hearts long. At the same time, it begs us to begin looking where we perhaps least expect to find Him – in “the city, in the streets, and in the squares” – in the simplest of places and faces of everyday life. Informed by such wisdom, may we as a Legion never “hide from seeking” Him where we refuse to go, but go to seek and find Him anywhere and everywhere we are sent to be!
April 15, 2018/Allocutio to the Philadelphia Senatus/Rev. Frank Giuffre
Reading: Handbook: Chapter 39, Number 17 (“In Each One worked for, the Legionary sees and serves Christ”): pp. 295-296