Ask And Receive

Just yesterday I read for the first time about how Our Blessed Mother Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Laboure.  Our Blessed Mother Mary told Saint Catherine Laboure that there are graces that are available but people don't receive them because they don't ask for them.  

It makes me think that people could mistakenly conclude that God has not called them to a particular vocation, because they do not have a specific grace they need to live out that vocation.  Yet perhaps God is calling them to that certain vocation, but they feel unable to embrace that vocation only because they have not asked for what they need to follow that vocation.  

God gives us what we ask for,* when we ask for what we need to do His will.  God waits for us to ask for the right thing.  God wants us to exercise our free will.  God loves us so much that he respects our freedom of choice.  Truly loving us, God will not force us.  We see evidence of how God does not coerce us in the gentleness and the tenderness and the humility of the heart of Jesus.**    

God is love.***  Love is patient.****  God patiently waits for us to decide whether we will choose to be who He made us to be.  If we embrace who God has always intended us to be, we become our true selves.  If we accept who God created us to be, we welcome the truth of who we are.  Let us ask God for what we need to do His will, and become who God has always meant us to be.  Amen.  

* Matthew 7:7 
** Matthew 11:29 
*** 1 John 4:8,16 
**** 1 Corinthians 13:4 

Give Him Honor

Who do we think we are?  What do we think we know?  What do we think we owe?  To whom do we think we owe it?  

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus speaks to us about what we owe and to whom we owe it.  In those verses we hear 

The Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech. 
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,
for you do not regard a person's status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?" 
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? 
Show me the coin that pays the census tax." 
Then they handed him the Roman coin. 
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" 
They replied, "Caesar's."
At that he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."*  

When asked whether people had to pay taxes or not, Jesus asked for a coin.  He asked and was told that the emperor was shown on the coin.  Jesus then instructed us that we should give to the government what belongs to the government, and to God what belongs to God.  

In expounding upon Scripture, it has been written that we are to give to earthly rulers what is due to them, as long as it does not controvert what is due to God.**  With similar reasoning, some people conclude that they do not have to pay taxes, claiming that they need not pay taxes to a government which then uses taxpayers' money to fund warmaking.  The logic goes that since war is all too often unjust, citizens are not obligated to pay taxes to support unjust wars.  

However, Jesus did not teach us to pay taxes unless the government is waging an unjust war.  When he offered his reply on this question of whether we must pay taxes, the Roman empire was conquering and subduing many persons.  Jesus could have said that taxes should be paid, but not to the Romans since they were subjecting so many people to their forced imperial expansion.  However, he did not say so.  Despite the warmaking of the Roman empire, Jesus taught people to give to Caesar what was Caesar's.  

Elsewhere in Scripture we hear that we are to pay taxes.  Today in his sermon here at the hermitage, Father Cyprian reminded us that Saint Paul tells us, "Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due."***  When taxes are due, we are to pay them.  We are to give the honor and respect to our leaders which is due to them as our earthly leaders.  We are to worship God since He is Our Heavenly Father, and we are to give Him the glory, praise, honor and adoration which is His due.  

Scripture tells us to pay the taxes we owe.  Jesus Himself directs us to give our earthly rulers what is due to them.  If we decide not to pay taxes, we turn away from Scripture.  We all have to decide whether or not to listen to Jesus.  

God tells us what we are called to do.  God has already chosen who we are.  Yet some people try to decide that they are someone other than who God made them to be.  Some people were born men but decide they want to be women.  God had already chosen their gender.  Some decisions have already been made for us.  If we try to ignore who God made us to be, we ignore the truth.  If we try to be people other than who God created us to be, we are living lies.  We all have to decide how we will relate to the truth.  

In deciding how we will relate to the truth, we either accept God or reject Him.  If we embrace who God made us to be, we welcome the truth into our hearts.  The truth is that God made us; He is our Creator.  We owe Him the respect due to Him as our Creator by respecting the choices He made for us when He knit us together in the womb.****  We pay him the respect and honor due to Him when we acknowledge our proper place before Him, that we are nothing without Him, that without Him we can do nothing.*****  To God be all glory, praise and honor, now and forevermore.  Amen.  

* Matthew 22:15-21 
** Jerusalem Bible, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. (New York, 1990), p. 1646, note "d" to Matthew 22:21
*** Romans 13:7 
**** Psalm 139:13 
***** John 15:5 

Listen To Echoes

The truth of who we are echoes over our lives.  The persistent emergence of our identity resounds in our souls, a message which, in its recurrence, repeatedly encourages us to stay true to who God faithfully calls us to be, and to evermore become.  

During my present stay here at the hermitage, I have been witnessing how my life continues to unfold consistently in ways which reinforce how God calls me to be who He has always meant me to be.  In the midst of this stay here, I hear my life echoing who I am.  

These few days of retreat seem like they can be taken as a tiny version of the year and a half I lived here.  In the ebb and flow of my emotions now, and in the present stirrings in my soul, and in the current movements of the Holy Spirit within me, I am reminded of similar interior shifts when I resided here.  

Much like when I moved in a few years ago to live here, similarly a couple of nights ago I was filled with joy and excitement at the prospect of basking in the stillness and silence and solitude here, so conducive to prayer and meditation.  Upon both arrivals, I deeply breathed in this contemplative atmosphere.  

Both three years ago and two days ago, I calmed down soon after arriving.  I began to take stock of who I am, namely someone with monastic tendencies, yet also with great love of those who are poor.  Then I came to see myself, and now I view myself, as a servant of those who are impoverished, and as having an inner monk I am to nourish through spiritual disciplines I can follow even in the midst of whatever activity occupies me.  

I practiced such attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit amidst busy days while I still lived here.  After I had lived here for about half a year, I started driving monks who couldn't drive, usually to their doctor appointments.  Today, about halfway through this visit, I drove to Carmel and picked up a monk; he was on his way back from monastic business with other Camaldolese monks in Italy.  After meeting him in Carmel, I brought him back here to the hermitage.  

As I progressed in my residence here, I concluded that it didn't seem that God was calling me to become a monk here, but that God had been calling me to be here so I could deepen my prayer life.  Similarly, while I have been deeply nourished during the last couple of days here, it seems clear to me that I am to ponder in my heart, as our Blessed Mother Mary did.*  I feel I am to retain and treasure what has so nurtured me and allow it to guide me and to empower me and to light my path** as I strive to serve my neighbors, many of whom are poor.  As the Trappist monk Thomas Merton noted, we are to bring the contemplative treasures we have been given and share those spiritual fruits out in the world.  We are to share with others the great love which God has bestowed upon us.  

To properly serve, we must show great love.  If we empty ourselves, God can fill us with His love.  Nourished by the presence of Jesus, especially felt in stillness and silence and solitude, we can help others to feel the presence of Jesus.  If we remain in Jesus, and Jesus in us,*** we can bear much fruit in His name; conversely, without Him, we can do nothing.****  If we are filled with the love of God,***** we can recognize Jesus in those who are the least among us,****** and we can welcome Jesus into our hearts.  

When we welcome Jesus into our hearts, we hear and welcome The Word which God has been speaking in eternity.  The Word, the love of God, has been echoing for all eternity.  We hear this echo calling to us in the depths of our souls.  When we hear, and listen to, and respond with open hearts to this repeating invitation, we become who God has always intended us to be.  

* Luke 2:19 
** Psalm 119:105 
*** John 15:4,5,6,7,9,10 
**** John 15:5 
***** Romans 5:5 
****** Matthew 25:40,45 

Listen With Love

Here at the hermitage where I am currently on retreat, every night after Vespers, for half an hour the Blessed Sacrament is on the altar in the church.  The monks welcome guests to join them in Eucharistic Adoration.  

Tonight during Eucharistic Adoration, as is typically the case, the lights were off.  Also as usual, near the Eucharist on the altar, three very short candles were burning.  

As I sat gazing at the Blessed Sacrament, I recalled how, earlier this week, I had heard a needy man, who I'll again call "Manuel," recite part of a poem he had written.  From memory as he retold the poem, he spoke of how he would not be ashamed of the sacrifice Jesus had made for him.  In the poem, he explained how he would not be ashamed of the body and the blood of Christ, for in it rests his salvation.*  

I was implicitly encouraged to welcome Jesus Christ into my heart as I heard Manuel recite his poem.  While Manuel does not always speak so poetically, nor does he always act so gracefully, nevertheless he sits before me as one from whom I can learn.  

Recently Manuel was chastised for allegedly attempting to conduct a drug deal in a public space.  Later that evening, apparently agitated over how he had been chided, Manuel was yelling in the road that if he felt like screaming in the street, then he would scream in the street.  

From his unsavory actions, one could quickly conclude that one has nothing to learn from him.  We can jump to the conclusion that we have nothing to learn from drug dealers and drug addicts.  Or we can recognize the truth that even drug dealers and drug addicts can teach us, if we are willing to listen to them.  

Jesus speaks to us through those who are maligned.  In how we react to those who are social outcasts, so we reply to Jesus.  Whatever we do to those who are the least among us, we do to Jesus.**  If we ignore those who are marginalized in our society, we turn our backs on Jesus.  

Everyday we are confronted with the choice of how we will respond when we meet Jesus in the poor person in front of us.  If we shut our ears and avert our eyes from the indigent person before us, we shut out Jesus.  Yet Jesus advised that those who have ears to hear should listen.***  

In the end, Jesus calls us to love.  We love our neighbor when we listen to our neighbor.  We are able to listen to our neighbor when we do not judge our neighbor.  If we choose not to judge our neighbor, then we can forgive our neighbor, and welcoming him into our hearts, we can listen to what he has to tell us.  

The Holy Spirit speaks to us through our neighbor.  The Holy Spirit, in our neighbor, invites us to open our hearts to Jesus.  There, in our neighbor, we find Jesus, inviting us to welcome Him into our hearts.  If we wish to welcome Jesus into our hearts, let us love our neighbor by not judging our neighbor, by forgiving our neighbor, and by listening to our neighbor.  Amen.  

* Romans 1:16 
** Matthew 25:40,45
*** Matthew 11:15; Matthew 13:9; Mark 4:9; Revelation 2:7,29 

Lovingly Welcome Martyrdom

This afternoon I arrived back here at the hermitage for my first visit since I stopped living here at the beginning of last summer.  Being here again, I am reminded of why I entered formation here on the path to becoming a monk: the silence and solitude so conducive to prayer and meditation; the liturgical schedule which includes communal prayer three times a day, in addition to daily Mass; and the warm, welcoming hospitality of these gracious monks.  

Yet I recollect that while I felt that God called me to live at this hermitage for a time so I could learn to deepen my prayer life, I feel that it has been clear to me for quite some time now that God has not given me the grace to be a monk.  A while ago I also concluded that I have an inner monk, who I am to nurture consciously, deliberately and mindfully, through the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, celebration of God's blessings, silence, solitude, simplicity and service, among other spiritual practices.  

God has given me the wisdom to realize that these spiritual disciplines help me to turn my attention toward Him, to focus on Him, and to hear Him and to listen to Him.  God gives us what we need to do His will.  We might get caught up in craving something that we would like to do to try to serve Him, but while we have our own hopes of how to serve God, in insisting upon them, we might be clinging to ideas which are our own, and are not according to the plan God has in mind for us.  

Today at Mass here, in his sermon Father Cyprian recalled how both Saint Francis and Saint Romuald longed to die as martyrs for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  Yet, Father Cyprian explained to us, God had not given Saint Francis and Saint Romuald the grace to be martyrs.  Father Cyprian went on to note that dying as a martyr is not something we can reach out and grasp; we must be given the grace to die as a martyr.  God gives us the grace we need to do His will.  

However, Father Cyprian gave us hope as he continued his homily.  He instructed us that God calls all of us to be martyrs for love.  We are to die to our own desires, so that, having emptied ourselves, God can fill us with His grace so that, filled with His love,* we can serve as the conduits through which God sends His love to our neighbors, so that they may receive what they need.  

I was reminded of these truths this morning when I received a message from someone I'll call "Paul."  God has blessed both Paul and me with the same certain person in our lives, who I'll call "Lauren."  Lauren is homeless and she also suffers from a drug addiction.  Paul and I have discussed much how we might be able to help Lauren, who keeps making decisions which threaten her spiritual, psychological and physical health.  While we can see Lauren as disappointing us, and based on that dissatisfaction, we could choose to isolate her and shun her, if we were to do so, we would be deciding to allow our emotions to control us.  Or we can choose to let our irritation with her not dominate us, but instead die to our natural inclinations, instead letting love rule us.  

When we forgive, we die to our selfish instincts to cling to our pain of how we feel we have been hurt.  As we forgive, we selflessly love the other person.  When we forgive, we also love ourselves, since we free ourselves from the prison in which we had been enclosing ourselves: when we forgive our neighbor, we let go of the pain which had been enslaving us, through the torment we had been deciding to impose on both our neighbor and on ourselves by previously refusing to forgive our neighbor.  

When we allow ourselves to be humbled, then God gives us the grace** we need to forgive our neighbor.  If we forgive our neighbor, we treat our neighbor as we would like to be treated, since we too would like to be forgiven.  When we forgive our neighbor, we love our neighbor as ourselves*** as Jesus taught us to do.  When we die to our own pain, we become martyrs for love.  Having let go of our pain, God can fill us with His grace, so that, filled with His love, we can give others the love they need.  In loving through the free gift of the grace of God,**** we glorify God.  In dying to ourselves, and in forgiving our neighbor, and thus loving our neighbor, we become who God has always meant us to be.  Amen.  

* Romans 5:5 
** James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5 
*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14  
**** Ephesians 2:8 

Know Patient Love

How do we know God is love*?  God loves because God gives.  God gives us Himself.  

God sent His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.**  His only Son Jesus did not cling to equality with God; rather, Jesus loved us so much He emptied Himself, humbling Himself by becoming human,*** submitting in total obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father.  Jesus humbled Himself even further, living in poverty and eating with social outcasts to bring them The Word that would save them.  Jesus humbled Himself yet further in order to save us, giving Himself up to death, and even more strikingly, death on the Cross.****  

Even though God has given us so much, with ingratitude we do not turn to God.  Yet God is patient with us, since God is love, and love is patient.*****  

When we realize that God has given us so much and that we appreciate God's blessings so little, yet that God is still patient with us, we can come to see that God loves us.  God patiently waits for us.  Turn to God, and know love.  Amen.  

* 1 John 4:8,16 
** John 3:16 
*** Philippians 2:6-7 
**** Philippians 2:8 
***** 1 Corinthians 13:4 

See Him Everywhere

How can a person always remain patient with others?  See Jesus in every person you meet.  

It is not a question of looking out for Jesus, to be vigilant to recognize Him when He crosses paths with us.  It is a matter of realizing that Jesus is in our neighbor always.  Jesus assured us that He is with us always.*  Thus, we are called to see Jesus in our neighbor always, and to see Him in everyone we meet.  

If we see Jesus in each and every person we meet, we can be patient with everyone we meet.  When we meet our neighbor, we can see patience before us.  In our neighbor, we encounter Jesus.  Since Jesus is the Son of God, and God is love,** and Jesus is love, as He told Saint Faustina, and since love is patient,*** we can come to face patience when we meet our neighbor.  Coming to patience, we can choose to welcome that patience into our hearts.  

With that patience in us, with love, which is patient, in us, we can be patient with our neighbor.  If we remain in Jesus, and if Jesus remains in us,**** we can be patient with our neighbor.  

We open our hearts to what we become.  When we open our hearts to patience, we become patient.  When we open our hearts to love, we become love.  Let us open our hearts to Jesus, to patience and love, and become patient and loving.  Amen.  

* Matthew 28:20 
** 1 John 4:8,16 
*** 1 Corinthians 13:4 
**** John 15:4,6,7,9,10 

Hear And Keep

Those who hear God's Word and who do it are blessed.  Persons who accept what they are called to do in each and every moment are blessed.  We are reminded of these truths in today's Gospel, where we hear that 

It happened that as Jesus was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed the womb that bore You and the breasts that fed You!"  But He replied, "More blessed still are those who hear The Word of God and keep it!"*  

As Saint Augustine has noted, Our Blessed Mother Mary is blessed moreso because she heard The Word of God and kept it, rather than just because she carried Jesus in Her womb.  Our Blessed Mother Mary assented to the will of God that she would conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit, and bear the Son whom she would name Jesus.  In response to the angel Gabriel informing her that this would come to pass, she declared to the angel Gabriel, "Let it happen to me as you have said."**  Our Blessed Mother Mary heard The Word she was to bear, and welcomed Him into her womb, and, more deeply, into her heart.  She was so blessed because she heard the will of God and acquiesced to it.  

In how she lived her life while she walked on this earth, Our Blessed Mother Mary gave us a hint of the message she would come back to give in her apparitions to Saint Jacinta, Saint Francisco, and Servant of God Lucia.  When she appeared to these peasant children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, she told them that we are called to pray much and make sacrifices, since many souls go to Hell since they have no one to pray for them.  Later Jesus told Lucia that the sacrifices demanded of each of us are the performance of the duties of our state in life.  

In our lives, we are constantly called to do our duties.  As the author of "The Cloud Of Unknowing" notes, we will be called to account for every fraction of time that has been given to us.  We are always being called to attend to the duty of the present moment, as the Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade described.  In every little moment, we can make little sacrifices of love of our neighbor, as Saint Therese of Lisieux demonstrated.  

In each little instant of time, the duty of the present moment calls us to perform little acts of love for our neighbor.  Where each one of us happens to be, there we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, just as Jesus taught us to do.***  Wherever each of us finds ourselves, there we are to love others and thus do the will of God, just as the situation calls us to do.  

For Our Blessed Mother Mary, in the moment when the angel Gabriel announced to her that she would bear the Son whom she would name Jesus, her duty was to give her consent to bear the Son of God in her womb.  In accepting the duty presented to her, she accepted the Son of God not only into her womb, but also into her heart.  She heard The Word proclaimed to her, that she would bear Jesus, and she accepted This Word and carried The Word out.  She was so blessed since she heard The Word of God and submitted to it.  

Those who obey the will of God are blessed.  People who hear The Word of God, and who do what The Word calls them to do, are blessed.  If you wish to be blessed, do what the state of your life calls you to do.  Amen.  

* Luke 11:27-28 
** Luke 1:31-38 
*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Seek Her Intercession

October 13, 1917.  The town of Fatima.  Portugal.  The night before, it had rained torrentially; on October 13, the people there and the ground there were thoroughly soaked.  Seventy thousand people gathered in Fatima on October 13, 1917; they had heard that three little children had seen apparitions of a Lady there that year.  The Lady had promised that a miracle would take place when she appeared there on October 13.  

There, in Fatima, exactly one hundred years ago on this date, before 70,000 people, the sun danced back and forth in the sky, defying cosmic laws.  It fell toward the earth.  When the sun returned to its usual location and remained in its place, all the people there were completely dry, even though just a short time earlier, they had been drenched.  The ground too was dry, even though it had just been saturated.  

On October 13, the Lady identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary.  The three little children were Servant of God Lucia, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco.  

In her apparitions to them at Fatima, Our Blessed Mother Mary told them to pray the rosary everyday for world peace and for an end to the first world war.  She explained to them that Jesus wished to establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart.  

As we show devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we welcome Jesus into our hearts, and thus are returning home to Our Heavenly Father.  When we pray seeking the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we are asking her to assist us in returning home to God.  She supports us in doing as Jesus told us to do because she loves her Son, because she loves God.  

Our Blessed Mother Mary, who is so kind and sweet and loving, who cares for us so tenderly, helps us to welcome Jesus into our hearts.  Just as she told the servants at the wedding feast in Cana, so she tells us about Jesus, "Do whatever He tells you."*  

If we beg Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we request what we need to be able to do what Jesus commands us to do.  When we ask Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we ask her to beseech Him that we may have all we need to do God's will.  Through her Spouse, The Holy Spirit, we are empowered to do the will of God.  Through her assistance, we are given the grace we need to do the will of Our Heavenly Father.  

Let us pour out our hearts to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  Let us implore her to come to our aid.  She loves us so tenderly and sweetly--indeed her will is love, since her will is the will of God, and we know that God is love**--that she will surely love us with great love.  

Knowing that Our Blessed Mother Mary loves us so much, we come to realize that we are tremendously aided in coming home to God, who is love, when we seek her intercession.  If we wish to return home to God, we have a powerful intercessor in Our Blessed Mother Mary to help us draw back to God.  Let us entrust ourselves to the loving care of Our Blessed Mother Mary, consecrate ourselves to her, and, greatly supported by her, thus return home to God.  Amen.  

* John 2:5 
** 1 John 4:8,16 

Pray For Desire

Today at Mass, during his sermon the priest related a memory from when he was in the seminary.  A professor was teaching about prayer.  

A student asked, "What if I don't feel like praying?"  

The professor replied, "Then pray for the desire to pray."  

Recognize God's Gifts

God meets all our needs.  In His great love, He knows and sees and provides for our true needs, since He knows us better than we know ourselves.  

When we do not know ourselves, we find it hard to love our neighbor as ourselves* as Jesus taught us to do.  If we knew ourselves, we would love ourselves, and thus we could love our neighbor as ourselves.  

When we know ourselves, love ourselves, and love our neighbor as ourselves, we do the will of God.  When we always follow the will of God, we love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength.**  Loving God with all we have, we become aware of how abundantly God provides for us.  

God gives us so many more gifts than we realize.  We do not see how many gifts God gives to us because we think in our limited terms of what we think we need and want.  

In contrast, God loves us infinitely.  Since we think in finite terms, we do not perceive the boundlessness of God's love.  

If we recognized all that God gives to us, we would appreciate that we have all we need.  God is love,*** and so God gives us all we need.   

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
** Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27 
*** 1 John 4:8,16

Accordingly Love Openly

We are called to love others according to their need.  As much as a person needs, to that extent we are called to love our neighbor.  

Some people have been deeply wounded, so they need much love.  For those who have been emotionally scarred, we are called to generously give them plentiful love so that God may heal them through us.  

At first we might feel tempted to dismiss some people as being too needy.  Yet we could have been the ones gravely abused and thus could have been the ones sorely in need of extensive love.  Conscious that we could have been in dire need of considerable love, with this insight we can choose to give the love to our neighbor which we would have wanted to receive ourselves, and thus we can come to love our neighbor as ourselves,* as Jesus taught us to do.  Well aware that we could have found ourselves deeply in need of great love, we can find it possible to open our hearts to others.  

When we encounter those who have been severely hurt, God calls us to open our hearts wide.  If we open our hearts wide to God, He can fill us with abundant love for others.**  With hearts full of the abounding love which God has bounteously bestowed upon us, we are empowered then give to the emotionally damaged what they so desperately need.  

Filled with the love of God, we can give copious love to those who greatly need it.  If we open our hearts to God, we can become much more than we have been.  By opening our hearts to God, and welcoming His love into our hearts, we become who God has always meant us to be.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
** Romans 5:5 

Little Becomes Much

We can be convinced that we do nothing of any significance.  It might seem that all of the evidence shows that we are having no effect on another particular person.  

We see so little.  So much there is we do not see.  

What we do is little, yet it can matter so much.  It might seem to matter little, but out of just a little can come so much.  

What we do might matter little to us.  Yet it might matter a great deal to someone else.  

I am not speaking merely in theoretical terms here.  I have seen this truth demonstrated right in front of my very eyes.  

I am thinking of a generous person I know named Amy.  Amy likes to make desserts for people.  Recently Amy made a pie for someone who was turning 43, who said no one had ever made her a dessert for her birthday.  

We can think that we are doing something routine and normal and ordinary and therefore that what we are doing does not matter much.  However, we might find out that what we have done is much more special than we had thought, and gives much more love to a person than she has previously received.  In the little presents we give, we might be extending much more kindness, with much more of a nurturing and caring effect than we realize.  

Unlike people who do not see that little acts of love can have great effects on others, Amy recognizes that every dessert she makes is an opportunity to love her neighbor as herself,* just as Jesus taught us to do.  She bakes treats for people since she seeks to love others.  She seizes little chances to serve her neighbor.  

When we perform little acts of kindness for our neighbor, we follow the little way of Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate today.  Saint Therese sought to get to Heaven by making herself little, by making little sacrifices, by showing her love for others in a thousand little ways.  

As people choose to be content with doing little, in the end they might find that actually God is doing much through them.  If people give their assent to being humbled, to becoming less than they have been, they can come to find God doing great things through them.  

When much is accomplished through those who are little, God receives the glory due to Him, since He is performing the great works.  Through the little, God is glorified.  

When God is glorified, praised, and adored, we find the greatness for which we were made.  If you wish to become great, become little.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14