Nothing’s small

IF we closely follow our Lord’s footsteps, we will soon realize nothing in our life is too small to merit our attention. There’s really nothing of little importance. If there’s love, everything becomes great and significant.

We can gather this intriguing truth from our words of our Lord himself: “He who is faithful in little is also faithful in much. He who is unjust in little is also unjust in much.” (Lk 16,10)

He backed up these words with his deeds. First, he as the second person of the Blessed Trinity became man, in a phenomenon described in St. Paul ’s letter to the Philippians in these words:

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant…” (2,5-7)

He was born poor, he spent 30 of his more or less 33 years of earthly life doing ordinary little things as one more citizen in Nazareth , and even in his busy public life, he gave no signs he paid little attention to small things.

Though feeling the burden of his tasks, he always managed to show affection to everyone, to be meek and humble, patient and merciful. And his miracles were done with utmost discretion and naturalness.

These teaching and example of Christ were followed by saints and holy men and women, notably our Lady, St. Joseph , the apostles, etc. They were all ordinary, common people who found love in following Christ in the little things.

This is what we have to understand clearly, deeply and consistently. Unless we internalize this teaching, our effort to love and to serve God and others would be hampered and compromised. It could even be averted.

How can one sincerely say he loves God and others when he ignores and even ridicules the little things?

It is in our care for the little things that we show our love and build that love up. It makes our heart beat with love all the time. It is what feeds our heart and soul.

The little things offer us many occasions to develop all kinds of virtues, purifying and identifying us more and more with Christ. It teaches us order, tenacity and perseverance, spirit of sacrifice, temperance.

When properly pursued, the little things make us strong and prudent, and so assure us of our continuing presence of God that we grow in integrity and unity and consistency in our life.

Though we have our own share of frailties and weaknesses that make us prone to tiredness, laziness and vulnerability to temptations, if we take care of little things, we can manage to rise above all these conditions.

The care for little things is really necessary for us to learn and master. Especially today when we seem to be seduced to care only for the big things and the popular and what seem to be powerful, we have to rev up our will to focus more on the little things.

This duty is urgent. The big things mean nothing if not ably supported by the little things. And around us is a persistent bombardment, especially in the media, of the twisted value of puffing up the big things at the expense of the little things.

Let’s see to it that this love for the little things never escapes from our heart and mind. We have to nourish it with our prayers, with our constant efforts to make good use of our time and to be generous in the little details involved in our work and in our relations.

In our dealings with others, we should try always to smile and to be nice, going above our usual differences and conflicts big and small. Let’s see to it that we make daily resolutions to renew and refresh our love for the little things.

Let’s grow in the virtues of living in God’s presence, zeal to love others, warts and all, spirit of penance and hard work, by dint of the repetition of small acts.

This is how we build our spiritual edifice, putting one little stone on top of another or mixing them with sand, making and pouring concrete, placing those iron bars and thousands of other little items.