Met for coffee with various ladies from Italian class this morning. We were very international: Lebanese, Malaysian, Mexican, American, and of course Italian. (One elderly lady in the coffee shop heard us chatting and cooing at the babies in English and walked over--I expected to admire baby Anna--and said, reprovingly, "One speaks Italian here." We smiled.) Besides Anna, there was Patrizio, a little latin lover-ble whose mother let me hold him for awhile. When he started getting fussy I tried the ancient game of Peek-a-boo, and it worked (When I was first here I bent down in front of the bar and the barista couldn't find me to give me my coffee; when I popped up I think he said boobasettete or something of the kind).
Why do babies smile when seeing the face of a stranger suddenly appear from behind closed hands?
We crave confidence in unseen reality. I love seeing in a baby's face the delight of realizing that where nothing could be seen, there was really, all the time, a person, recognizable and loving.
I sympathize--I get anxious when I can't see the smiling face of God. Is He really there? Does He really know and understand me and have my best interest at heart? I fret and worry. How do I even know myself--if I am truly abandoned to His will as I say I am? The secret is peace.
"Ultimately the secret is perfect abandonment to the will of God in things you cannot control, and perfect obedience to Him in everything that depends on your own volition, so that in all things, in your interior life and in your outward works for God, you desire only one thing, which is the fulfillment of His will.
If you do this, your activity will share the disinterested peace that you are able to find at prayer, and in the simplicity of the things you do men will recognize your peacefulness and give glory to God...For the saint preaches sermons by the way he walks and the way he stands and the way he sits down and the way he picks things up and holds them in his hand."
And the way he waits, expecting to be delighted.
"I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?"
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