Learning from the Fox

NORBERTO CRUZ NAZARENO

The Little Prince and the Fox have lucidly illustrated how to encounter God in prayer.  Watching the Fox’s (Gene Wilder) various scenes with the Little Prince has made me appreciate this more profoundly

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkiZuu79N_I&feature=share   and

The Fox said: “I have a very monotonous life. I hunt chickens. Men hunt me. They come. I hide. They leave. I come out. That’s all.”

This monotonous life can be true for many of us as we follow our daily routine.  The key is “to be tamed.”  It is the Fox that naturally has to be tamed. And the Little Prince has to take time. In the process, he has tamed himself.

The Little Prince asked:
“What will I have to do?”

The Fox said: “Well, every day, you’ll come and sit where you are sitting now. You’ll always come at the same time, at, let’s say, four in the afternoon.  I could start to get excited about, O, at about three o’clock.  If you came at any odd time, I could not have the chance to get cued up.”

Imagine!  In the same vein, our Lord gets cued up as we meet and encounter him regularly. He is excited to meet us at our appointed time! We come to realize that His desire for us is much more than our desire for Him.

Do Nothing

The Little Prince asked:
“But what will I do at four o’clock?”

The Fox said:  “Nothing.”

Nothing! We most often forget that the most important part of our prayer encounter is what the Lord does and say to us, rather than what we do or say to the Lord. So we do nothing! St. John of the Cross says: “de nada.” The Psalmist said: “be still and know that I am God.” (Ps 46:10). Jeremiah said: “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand.” (Jer. 18:6)

Taming Sessions

There is really no need to further explain beyond the part of the beautiful lyrics of the melodious song as to what really happens in these taming sessions:

“We’ll come a glance at a time.  A small advance at a time.
We’ll be afraid a bit and shy a bit.
Avoid each other’s eyes a bit…

We’ll come a blush at a time, a happy blush at a time.
Begin to laugh a bit and stare a bit,
And walk around on air a bit.
As daily, we grow.  As night and day, we will grow.
A little closer and closer and closer.”

… And then one day.  There’ll come a day.
A Christmas Eve.  Midsummer day.
A moment when.  Right there and then.
We’ll gonna touch!

The Lesson

And as we allow the Lord to pick us up and cuddle us, we:

… will jump miles at a time.
A million smiles at a time.
Begin to love a lot and live a lot.
And give and give and give a lot.

Then the Fox further explained what happened in the process:

“If you’ve tamed me, everything will be different.  Even the wheat fields… I don’t like bread, so I don’t care about wheat.  Wheat is the color of gold, like your hair.  So, if you’ve tamed me, I’ll start to care about what cause it would remind me of you.”

Many of us have experienced this many times: the sight, the smell, the touch. What would have been ordinary for others has become significant because it reminds us of the person we love and care for.

In the end, the Fox passed on this now famous “secret” message
to the Little Prince:

“It is only with the heart that one can see. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Come then and learn, be patient, and be tamed!