Where We Walk

Caitlan Rangel reflects on what the good news Jesus’ hidden life reveals for our own lives at home.

Most days, I would rather be hiking. I grew up adventuring with my dad in the canyon below our home. When I was in college, my mom and I hiked Mount Whitney. Those hours totaled would be days of fresh air in my face, dirt and rock crunching beneath my feet, undistracted conversation being shared, eyes taking in whatever the land had in store. 

While my mind at first travels to me hiking alone, surrounded by openness, my imagination soon welcomes in my children and husband. Little feet running and tripping on the trail. Baby carriers strapped on. Toddlers seeking to be carried once their legs have tired on the hills. 

And, my heart is still at peace. In fact, it is filled with increased joy. 

How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the one bringing good news,
Announcing peace, bearing good news,
announcing salvation, saying to Zion,
"Your God is King.” (Isaiah 52:7)

Though my feet love the trails, most days my bare feet walk across the kitchen floor making meals, cleaning, and refilling my coffee. They walk from the washer and dryer in the garage to the couch with baskets of clothes ready to be folded. They walk over to a crying or fussy child who needs a hug and some sympathy. 

How beautiful … are the feet of the one bringing good news.

The season of Ordinary Time invites us to reflect upon the whole of Jesus’ life. While we don’t know much about it, Jesus’ hidden life in Nazareth reveals the beauty, truth, and goodness present in our ordinary lives. Jesus "increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:51-52) without great fanfare. Rather, he spent his days working, praying, talking, laughing, listening, crying, helping. Jesus walked around his home and community bringing good news in the ordinary. 

Pope Paul VI calls Jesus’ hidden life at home “the school of the Gospel.” He says:

The home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus - the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem for silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in us. . . A lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is, its communion of love, its austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and inviolable character. . . A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the "Carpenter's Son", in you I would choose to understand and proclaim the severe and redeeming law of human work (CCC 533).

Jesus’ life at home was part of his mission and prepared him for public ministry. His life at home was indispensable.

As we ponder Jesus’ hidden life, the importance of our lives at home emerges with greater clarity. It is beautiful to comfort, encourage, love, embrace, and be present to the ones we have been given. It is beautiful to read together, play together, speak about Jesus together, cook together, and learn from each other. It is utterly ordinary, and it is also the good news of which the prophet Isaiah speaks and Jesus’ hidden life reveals. 

And yet, we encounter resistance — these things are beautiful, but we sometimes resent them. How could these things that are so mundane be the things that bring us peace? How can we bring good news when we sometimes feel that the people and things of everyday life are burdens? 

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Wherever your feet might be, that place has the potential to be beautiful. #catholicmom

When our hearts and minds callous against those we love, we can ask God to give us the clarity and courage to recognize our hardness of heart. God invites us to see the dignity of the hidden work we do. God invites us to look for and love him where we might not expect. 

Today, I invite you to consider: To whom do I bring good news? To whom do I bring words of peace? 

Wherever your feet might be, that place has the potential to be beautiful. Sacred ground unfurls under “the feet of the one bringing good news.”

Copyright 2021 Caitlan Rangel
Images (top to bottom): copyright 2021 Caitlan Rangel, all rights reserved; Canva Pro