Closets

I came home for lunch last week, and I couldn’t find Baxter. After a quick review of his favorite resting spots, I was at a loss as to where he was. I kept calling his name, but there was no response. Finally, I stopped and listened. I heard this faint “meow”, but I wasn’t sure of where it was coming from. I went to the garage. No Baxter. I went to the spare bedroom. No Baxter. Still the “meows” continued. Finally, I opened the coat closet door, and he came running out. I don’t know when or how he got in there, but he was certainly happy to be free. For a few hours, Baxter was left confined in a dark closet, without food or water, and he didn’t appreciate the whole experience.

We sometimes do the same sort of thing. We closet ourselves, and we may not know how to get out. Maybe it’s a problem we have that we don’t want anyone to know we have. Maybe it’s someone in the family’s problem that we are embarrassed to admit. Maybe we are closeting a past secret that we are afraid to face or have discovered. Maybe we are hiding something good and useful, a talent we have that we don’t share because we aren’t confident enough of ourselves or sure enough of its worth. Maybe we have confined ourselves because we feel safe in the space we have carved out, and a bigger world is just so uncertain. There are many reasons we stay in the dark, hiding parts of our lives.

But darkness is where demons live. When we hide things out of fear, they take on a power that can control our lives. We spend a lot of energy making sure no one knows this piece of our story. We pretend that our lives are happy and complete, but there is always this underlying unease. What if someone finds us out? We are lost in our confinement, and we don’t know how to get out.

Jesus calls out the demons. He brings them into the light and forces them to speak. When this happens, their power is gone. Our problems are put into their proper proportion. We are not alone with them. Others share similar dilemmas. There are people and ways to help. Our fears, generated in isolation, are now dissolved in the light of our common, weak humanity. We need each other, and there is no shame in that. Whatever talents and gifts we have become tools forhelping each other and enhancing the life we share. We see both our problems and our treasures differently in the light of Christ. They are valuable occasions of grace, bonding us to one another through the mutual respect we gain when we serve others with the gifts we were given.

Baxter learned a valuable lesson from getting trapped in a closet for a few hours. He won’t find a cozy hiding space where doors can be closed, trapping him inside. We need to learn a similar lesson for ourselves.

-Monsignor Statnick