Simplicity, Transparency, Trust

Today's brief Gospel passage brings to mind the virtue of simplicity, one of the three "violets" that characterize Marist spirituality.  St. Marcellin urged the early brothers to be themselves, no duplicity, no hypocrisy as Jesus admonished the Pharisees with the familiar observation:  "Although you cleanse the outside of the cup an the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and evil." (Lk 11:40).  So often WE hide behind the façade of goodness a person we would not want to be seen.  The Marist virtue of simplicity seeks to match the outside with the inside, so that  what people see is what they get directly and transparently from our hearts.
Similarly, the University of Notre Dame is celebrating Founder's Day today, the memorial of St. Edward the Confessor, for whom the founder of Notre Dame, Fr. Edward Sorin was named.  He was a man of strong faith and determination like St. Marcellin, and his words written in an early letter from Notre Dame reveal his steadfast faith and simple trust and hope in the Providence of God, much like that of St. Marcellin. “Yes, we are happy. We have the Lord with us. Only tonight we hung our sanctuary lamp where none had hung before... They tell us we won’t be able to afford to keep it burning. But we have a little olive oil and it will burn while it lasts... We can see it through the woods and it lights the humble home where our Master dwells. We tell each other that we are not alone, that Jesus Christ lives among us. It gives us courage.”
My we find such simple, trusting faith in our own hearts.
Bro. Rene