Sim·plic·i·ty
/simˈplisədē/
Here’s the definition I think most aligns with simplicity:
As a character trait, the quality of not being affected; therefore, unassuming and unpretentious. A simple person is honest, sincere, and straightforward. Simplicity is single-mindedness. As a supernatural virtue it seeks only to do the will of God without regard to self-sacrifice or self-advantage.
I recently had the privilege of caring for a man at the hospital who lives outside. Let’s call him Mark. While he was recovering in the hospital, I would take him for 2-3 walks each day to build up his strength and to help him get out of his room since he was having an extended stay with us. One day, while we were walking the hall, I began asking him about his experience living on the street. Without question or hesitation, in an air of purity and simplicity, he began to share. It struck me how open he was to speak. Mark didn’t care how he was perceived by me, he didn’t care to hide himself, he didn’t exaggerate or downplay, he didn’t mess around with putting on a mask. I looked at this man and realized that I was seeing him. His authenticity touched me deeply and I was moved to listen in a way I don’t usually listen. His speaking flowed out in few words, and those words in themself weren’t particularly eloquent, but they captivated me.
One thing, in particular, stood out to me as he was speaking and it has lingered in my heart ever since. I asked him about his possessions, what he values and how he cares for his things. He said, “everything I have will be taken from me at some point. Everything. If I am given something very nice, it is the first thing stolen from me. I may have it for 3 days, maybe a week, but I know it will be taken.” He went on to share about his relationship with his “things” by seeing them as never being truly his own. He spoke about how he can’t control what he has and what he doesn’t have, he just receives what he is given and lets it go when it is taken.
“At that time the disciples approached Jesus and said, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said, ‘Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven…’” Matthew 18:1-3
When a child is secure in the home of his father, he is free. The child doesn’t worry about formulating the perfect sentences so as to impress his father, nor does he perform for attention. He has his father's love and delights in his relationship with his dad. When there is something out of reach he says “dad, get that for me”, and he trusts in his father who is able to reach higher than he can to get the object he desires. His world revolves around his dad, everything that he has comes from him. Though Mark never once spoke about God, his simplicity resembles that of a child.
Following this encounter, I had the opportunity to go out with the Mercy Missionaries for street ministry one afternoon. My experience with Mark was on the front of my heart as I began encountering the different men and women on the street that afternoon. I remembered well what Mark had shared with me and as our time was unfolding I realized that the captivating element that I saw in him was in each of the men and women I was meeting on the street. They all have it, and we can all see it so long as we have ears to hear.
This is the value that those on the street hold. The possession they have that is of great value is their voice, their story, the opportunity for them to connect. Yes, material things should and will be given to them, but as Mark informed me, they will also be taken. But their story, their wisdom, their faith hidden behind profound suffering in our common human experience is of great value. Their voice is something that can’t be taken from them but it can be muted by my own selfishness, judgments, and lack of generosity to hear them. And to my surprise, what they have to share is like pearls in mud. Their voice holds a significance like the parables did in the mouth of our Lord. The importance of what they share goes far beyond the words they speak.
The Lord is Risen and He is alive. He sits them in front of us and challenges us to look at them and realize that in their homelessness, they shelter the Lord. That in their poverty we can see an icon of the poverty we are called to. Their simplicity is the simplicity we ought to have. They are truly seen as the least in the kingdom of the world but it seems to me that they are the ones presented by Jesus as the greatest in the kingdom of God.
This Easter season, may we have the humility to learn from these men and women and let go of the things of this world so as to enter the kingdom of heaven that is right before our very eyes.
Listen close, can you hear Him?
Elena Myre