Doing Good Quietly
Marist Moment: Doing Good Quietly
‘Your presence shouts at me and you haven’t even said a word’ is a phrase that recognises our presence arrives before our mouth opens. Perhaps we’ve always known that witness comes before words; we let our lives do the talking and we don’t need to promote ourselves. Mary’s life and witness reveals this in the striking fact we have only 4 times she says something in the scriptures. Marists call this attitude being ‘hidden and unknown’.
A popular Marist Book called ‘The Age of Mary’ offers some thoughtful ideas on the Marist Way of looking at and living life.
Hidden and Unknown
“Hidden and unknown in this world” is a famous Marist maxim, and the most easily misunderstood. Perhaps ‘doing good quietly’ is one way of understanding it. It is not shyness, and not a devout technique. Snijders shows that it flows from the deepest pattern of God’s own action: the Son “did not cling to his equality with God, but emptied himself” (Philippians 2). Whenever the Gospel meets a new culture, that self-emptying must happen again. Whatever stands in the way of the Word being heard — prestige, power, self-importance, the need to win — has to be laid aside.
Colin saw that the modern person is “jealous of his freedom and independence.” Any hint of domination makes people slip through our hands. So Marists do good the way Mary did — quietly, without anyone talking about it — trusting that “the truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it makes entrance into the mind at once quietly and with power” (Vatican II). The other side of hiddenness is trust: if this is God’s work and not ours, it does not need our self-promotion.
In an age of platforms and personal brands, this is wonderfully counter-cultural and deeply freeing. You do not have to be impressive to be fruitful. A sincere, joyful, unpretentious life — lived where you already are — may be the most effective witness the secular world can receive.
Marist reflection question
Where do I secretly need to be noticed, thanked, or proved right in my serving? What would it mean to do that same good “hidden and unknown”?
Marist practice
Do one genuinely good thing this week that no one will ever know about — and resist every urge to mention it. Let your Father, who sees in secret, be enough.
Marist Resources Download
This resource comes from a Marist Spirituality Series: ‘The Age of Mary’ by Jan Snijders. Click here for full reflection guide
