Editor’s note: The statement on Miles Jesu’s charism approved at the November 2009 General Assembly lists four virtues that our members especially aspire to: availability, simplicity, sacrifice, and joy (see our January and April 2010 issues.) This month we will look at simplicity.

In everyday conversation, calling someone “simple” is not usually a compliment, suggesting that the person isn’t particularly astute, if not something worse. On the other hand in metaphysics and Christian philosophy, to be “simple” is a very good thing: God alone is completely “simple”—He is what He is, through and through, with nothing able to be added, and nothing able to be taken away.

Man, being a creature, cannot by nature be purely simple as God is. But we are called to practice the virtue of simplicity.. Being “simple” in this sense means basically to align our lives to the one single goal of following God’s will. Simplicity is very closely linked to availability and to the spirit of joy and the spirit of sacrifice. All of these ideals are bound up in putting God first, where he belongs, and where it is in every way to our own advantage to have him.

In his Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, presents “simplicity” thus:
“As a character trait, the quality of not being affected; therefore, unassuming and unpretentious. A simple person is honest, sincere, and straightforward. Simplicity is single-mindedness. As a supernatural virtue it seeks only to do the will of God without regard to self-sacrifice or self-advantage.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says “[W]ith simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God’s will in everything.” (CCC n. 2520)

Simplicity speaks to us on the “how” of things at two levels:

How should we conduct our affairs? With the one goal of uniting ourselves to God.

How should we conduct ourselves? With a sincere and straightforward openness to God, without basing things on whatever pain or whatever advantage may be involved. Humility is involved, that authentic humility—and wisdom—that sees and values things only through God’s eyes.

In Franco Zeferelli’s epic masterpiece Jesus of Nazareth, the three kings are depicted as recognizing the meaning behind the stark conditions in which they find Jesus at the end of their long journey. Having passed by way of Herod’s luxurious palace in the golden city (history attests both to Herod’s cruelty and to his success in building sumptuous and awe-inspiring edifices), they find the king of their quest in a little hamlet of shepherds. One king says: “I did not know what we were to find. And coming here—a stable! I thought my brothers were mistaken! But now I see the justice of it. There could be no other place.” While another voices what all three understand: “Yes. Not in glory, but in humility.” True, these words do not come from the gospel but from a modern-day script-writer. Yet they capture the message Jesus lived out, from his hidden birth to the end of his visible presence on earth. Balanced against the infinite majesty of God, worldly glory and pomp become ridiculous, and Jesus had no use for it.

Mary, in this as in all things, shows us the path. On the surface she was a simple village woman whose life was dedicated to tending to her small family, quietly serving her Son. With kindhearted, motherly affection she shared the joys and sorrows of her neighbors. The day the wine ran out at someone’s wedding, she was among the first to notice and the one to find a solution. (cf Jn 2:1-12) While following her Son as he went about preaching, she was treated as just one of the crowd. (cf Mt. 12: 46-50) When an angel appeared to her and told her she was to be the mother of the Messiah, her reaction was not to look for glory but to act on the secondary message of her elderly cousin’s pregnancy and to go in haste to be with her. Mary lived a life of simplicity while fulfilling a singular vocation exalted above all men and above all angels. And she returned in our own times to Fatima (1917) to remind us of Our Lord’s desire that we consecrate our daily lives to him, offering him the joys, burdens, successes, and failures of our daily duties. She came to remind us about simplicity and its importance.

Simplicity means aligning ourselves, in the externals as well as internally, to a “unity of life” with God.

In his apostolic exhortation Christifidelis Laici, Pope John Paul II wrote: “The apostle admonishes us: ‘Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ (Col 3:17). Applying the apostle’s words to the lay faithful, the Council [Vatican II] categorically affirms: ‘Neither family concerns nor other secular affairs should be excluded from their religious program of life.’ Likewise the Synod Fathers [who helped prepare Familiaris Consortio] have said: ‘The unity of life of the lay faithful is of the greatest importance: indeed they must be sanctified in everyday professional and social life. Therefore, to respond to their vocation, the lay faithful must see their daily activities as an occasion to join themselves to God, fulfill his will, serve other people and lead them to communion with God in Christ.’”

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