The Hidden Saints

 "O my Jesus, each of Your saints reflects one of Your virtues; I desire to reflect Your compassionate heart, full of mercy . . . " - St. Faustina

 “O help! O help! O holy Mother of God, let me become so inflamed and sanctified that I am not      always thinking of breakfast.” - Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos

 Yesterday, Mother, during the meal I asked little Jesus this question: "Little Jesus, in bygone days, did You eat bananas?" He answered me, laughing, "Marcel, it is not for eating that I came down to earth." But afterwards, acceding to my wish, He added in a more gentle tone, "I have never eaten bananas and there are many things that you eat which I have not eaten. However, at this moment, when you eat something, it is as if I was eating it myself, since we two make only one." On hearing little Jesus speak so, I was very content and I ate two bananas. - Servant of God Marcel Van

As I write, it is October 5th, and there are two saints hiding behind the Sunday, Jesus' little Easter. What a delight to remember that today is the feast of St. Faustina, of Divine Mercy fame, and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, a Redemptorist priest originally from Germany, but a happy transplant to the U.S.A., ending his days in New Orleans. In her life on earth, which ended on this day in 1938, Faustina was also quite hidden, while Fr. Seelos was better known, touching many lives as a preacher, confessor, formator of seminarians, and much more. After his death he has become known as a wonder-worker, so close is he to Jesus and so compassionate to us still on earth. As for Faustina, she has catapulted to fame as the author of the Divine Mercy Diary, which Jesus has used, along with His image, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and the novena and Feast of Divine Mercy, to draw the whole world to His dazzling, infinite Mercy and Love. I must add that these two are very special to me because on this, their feast, in 2002, my second son was baptized into the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Hooray for the communion of saints!

But what about banana boy? What about St. Therese's beloved little spiritual brother from Vietnam,  our own dear little Servant of God Marcel Van? He was hidden and he remains hidden, whether it's Sunday or Thursday or any day of the week at all . . . and yet daily he speaks to my heart, daily he inspires me to understand this tenderness of Jesus and powerful love of the Blessed Trinity that has captured all the saints and consumed them in the fire of a Love that can only be called God.

What a funny little boy our Marcel is! People used to ask me, "Oh, is he a saint?" 
Well, not officially yet!
"Oh, then is he blessed?"
No, not quite there yet.
"Ah, he must be venerable, then?"
Well, to be perfectly honest, he has a cause, he is a Servant of God, and whether he'll ever be named more, I really couldn't say.

I once had the outrageous privilege of meeting Marcel's current postulator (the one in charge of moving his cause along to the next stages, culminating in canonization), the wonderful Benedictine Pere Olivier de Roulhac of the Abbey of San Wandrille, in Normandy, France. I not only met him, but thanks to a dear friend who knew him, my husband and I got to spend a good half hour (a great half hour!) in conversation with him. Despite the language barrier, and despite my being a Marcel-fanatic, I told Dom Olivier that I thought Marcel wouldn't advance far in the ways of official recognition, and although that was several years ago, I still think the same. Why?

Marcel's vocation can be described in many, many words, which is why he wrote what turned out to be four books, and I could write blog posts about him till the cows come home (and since I live in a suburban neighborhood with no cows, this means till the end of time, or at least until city zoning changes, which I don't foresee) - and still neither Marcel nor I could fully explain all that Jesus has planned from all eternity for Marcel to do - all the souls he has helped Jesus save and will help Jesus save. Heavens, I could write for another 50 years, God willing, about Marcel and never reach the end of what he has said just to me, let alone his message for us all!

And yet . . . I think I can spare us all a lot of time and trouble by saying that Marcel's vocation can be summed up this simply:

He is the second St. Therese.

He is the second Little Flower, and his job is to continue Therese's work, to help her to spread the good news of her Little Way, that is, the great news of God's limitless love for us, His kindness, His condescension, His mercy that seeks us out with great compassion and gentleness, His goodness that finds its satisfaction and delight in dwelling with the children of men. We have nothing to fear, and everything to enjoy: namely, God who is Love.

Now I admit, there could be (and are) a whole library full of books on St. Therese and her Little Way. But my point here is that Marcel is doing nothing new - except insofar as we need to hear again and again, every single day, about how God loves us. The Fall certainly did a number on us - no, not the autumn, but that great non-seasonal affect disorder which we call original sin, and the way it has turned us upside down. God loves us! That is the truth! So like a child who's disobeyed, we tend to think God hates us. Wrong again, little mustard seed! Yes, we've all disobeyed, but yes too, He always keeps loving us and can't wait for us to throw ourselves into His arms, or at least stop fighting a little when He picks us up and presses us to His Heart and covers us with kisses. . . 

Marcel is here to repeat that to us, and the only difference that matters between himself and Therese is this:

While their single message is that we are nothing and God is All, but He loves our littleness and loves to stoop down to our weakness and poverty and fill us with this All, the difference between Marcel and Therese is that while she has been glorified after her earthly death - raised quickly to canonized saint and named co-patroness of the missions with the great St. Francis Xavier, co-patroness of France with St. Denis and her heroine, St. Joan of Arc, and Doctor of the Church with St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, St. Francis de Sales, St. Alphonsus, et al., and in short, loved by the whole world - Marcel remains still merely a Servant of God and nearly, relatively, almost entirely unknown on earth!

But this is a marvel in itself and wholly wonderful, because the one thing that becomes hard for us is that while Therese preaches littleness and our acceptance and even our joy in littleness, she doesn't seem quite as little as she once was - especially if you have the chance to venerate her relics (see SCHEDULE HERE) when she's on a rock star tour of the USA, or if you have the chance to go to Lisieux and see her Basilica, built on the direct order of Pope Pius XI and magnificent, or if you do the easiest thing of all and call upon here wherever you are at this moment - Little Flower, in this hour, show your power! - and become (keep your eyes open or if it's time for a nap or bed, let your heart stay open!) the recipient of one of her countless roses, a heavenly grace of which you stand (or sit or lie down) in need.

This shouldn't vitiate her message, and it won't as long as copies of Story of a Soul are in print - and our latest estimate is (from the book A Shower of Roses by the lay archivist of the Lisieux Carmel, Camille Burette, who is the one who would know) 500 million copies exist by now. And yet it's kind of wonderful, kind of miraculous even, to have her message re-presented to us by someone so little and hidden that we don't even have relics. (Our little brother had the privilege of giving his life as a martyr in a communist concentration camp in Vietnam, and his body is lost to us.)

And yet, and yet, and yet . . . ah, the mysterious and wonderful plans of God who is Wisdom Incarnate. Jesus, thank You! Thank You for hiddenness, which You have chosen even till today in the years You spend with good St. Joseph and our Blessed Mother . . . which You spend at this moment in the Blessed Sacrament . . . which You give to us in the lives of so many of Your favorite saints: men and women we thank You for letting us know, even when they are hidden from the rest of the world!

One of my favorite sayings of Jesus to a saint was also loved by Therese. She put it at the top of her poem, "Jesus, My Beloved, Remember" written for her sister Celine. Therese quotes Jesus' adorable revelation to St. Gertrude:

"My daughter, seek those words of mine which most exude love. Write them down, and then, keeping them preciously like relics, take care to reread them often. . . Be assured that the most precious relics of mine on earth are my words of love, the words which have come from my most sweet Heart."

In my favorite book of all time, Marcel's Conversations with Jesus, Mary, and Therese of the Child Jesus, we have the relics of both Jesus and Marcel (not to mention Mary and Therese), because we have their words which most exude love.

I'm delighted from the tips of my toes to the very top of my new gray-curly-mop-of-post-cancer-treatment-hair that day after day I get to write about (and especially read) these words of love. Thank You, Jesus, for the hidden saints. Let them remain hidden, but be sure to reveal their words of love - Your words of love - to every soul in need of them. 

Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints!

Draw me; we will run!!!