“JESUS IN DISTRESSING DISGUISE”: That’s how Mother Teresa described the poor she served. But it’s also a key to understanding the Catholic mind. So much of how we live is about what Aquinas’s great hymn, “Pange Lingua,” captured in the phrase “sensuum defectui”–in my super-rough quasi-translation, “what the senses cannot [do].”

Mark ch. 6 describes how the people of Jesus’s own hometown did not recognize their Savior. It’s maybe too easy to feel superior to these people–how could they not recognize Jesus? But it is so hard, really, to know ourselves, let alone other people–we are constantly confronted with Jesus in distressing disguise, and we constantly fail to see Him.

Most obviously for Catholics, there’s the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of the Lord. (I suppose the Eucharistic miracles are the equivalent of the Transfiguration, when the divinity behind the deceptive, plain human skin was revealed.)

Then there’s Jesus hidden in those in need.

Then there’s Jesus hidden in those we have wronged. Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran includes the acute line, “Of course, all murderers and all oppressors have a long list of grievances against their victims, only most are not as eloquent as Humbert Humbert.” It is so painful to acknowledge the reality of the people we harm.

Then there’s Jesus hidden in the people who annoy us.

Then there’s Jesus in the people who embarrass us.

Really, there are so many unseen Christs–we overlook Him every day.

My cheery Advent thought, I guess.

How to go to Confession. (I believe in always ending a blog post with a practical tip, a la Hints from Heloise.)