Meditations on “The Little Way” of Following JesusSample

The Way of Simplicity

[Jesus] did not say, “I am the flower of the gardens, a carefully-tended rose” but “I am the flower of the fields and the lily of the valleys” [Song of Solomon 2:1]. Well, you must always be as a drop of dew hidden in the heart of this beautiful Lily of the valley.

The dewdrop—what could be simpler, what more pure? It is not the child of the clouds; it is born beneath the starry sky and survives but a night. When the sun darts forth its ardent rays, the delicate pearls adorning each blade of grass quickly pass into the lightest of vapor.…

Happy dewdrop, known to God alone, think not of the rushing torrents of this world! Envy not even the crystal stream that winds among the meadows. The ripple of its waters is sweet, indeed, but it can be heard by creatures. Besides, the field flower could never contain it in its cup. One must be so little to draw near to Jesus, and few are the souls that aspire to be little and unknown. “Are not the river and the brook,” they urge, “of more use than a dewdrop? Of what avail is it? Its only purpose is to refresh for one moment some poor little field flower.”

Ah! They little know the true Flower of the field. If they knew Him, they would understand better our Lord’s reproach to Martha. Our Beloved needs neither our brilliant deeds nor our beautiful thoughts. If He were in search of lofty ideas, has He not His angels, whose knowledge infinitely surpasses that of the greatest genius of earth? Neither intellect nor other talents has He come to seek among us.… He has become the Flower of the field to show how much He loves simplicity.

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Our Lord…showed me the book of nature, and I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would lose its springtide beauty, and the fields would no longer be enameled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, our Lord’s living garden. He has been pleased to create great saints who may be compared to the lily and the rose, but He has also created lesser ones who must be content to be daisies or simple violets flowering at His feet, and whose mission it is to gladden His divine eyes when He deigns to look down on them. And the more gladly they do His will, the greater is their perfection.

I understood this, also: that God’s love is made manifest as well in a simple soul that does not resist His grace as in one more highly endowed. In fact, the characteristic of love being self-abasement, if all souls resembled the holy doctors who have illuminated the church, it seems that God, in coming to them, would not stoop low enough. But He has created the little child who knows nothing and can but utter feeble cries, and the [uncultivated person] who has only the natural law to guide him, and it is to their hearts that He deigns to stoop. These are the field flowers whose simplicity charms Him; and, by His condescension to them, our Savior shows His infinite greatness. As the sun shines both on the cedar and on the floweret, so the divine Sun illumines every soul, great and small, and all correspond to His care—just as in nature the seasons are so disposed that on the appointed day the humblest daisy shall unfold its petals.

Thought: Our Lord is often pleased to give wisdom to little ones.