We need to reconcile ourselves with this happy truth of our
faith that we do not have to wait for extraordinary circumstances for
us to reach heaven and even to have a taste of it even while still
here on earth. With the little, ordinary things in our life, we have
all the means and chances to have heaven within our reach.
The secret again is to do everything, no matter how little
or insignificant it is in human terms, with love. That is, with the
love of God, reflecting and channeling God’s abiding love for us in
everything that we do, which usually are small and ordinary things in
our day.
Sanctity, our ticket to heaven, certainly requires heroism,
even to the point of martyrdom. But we can be sure that by being
consistently loving in doing the little things of life, especially
when they are hidden and unappreciated humanly, we would already be
very heroic indeed.
The Book of Sirach says: “He who despises small things will
fail little by little.” (19,1) We have to be most careful because the
neglect of little things can easily lull us to complacency, or to
think that nothing is wrong and that everything is just fine.
In short, we fail to develop a unity of life. Not only would
we be unable to link the present with the future, the means with the
end, the internal with the external, we would also fail to relate the
mundane with the sacred, the fleeting character of the prosaic
elements in our daily life with the permanent value in our life beyond
death.
We obviously have to contend with many obstacles along the
way. We can tend to be narrow-minded and short-sighted, full of
improper biases and attachments. We easily make rash judgments and are
often at the mercy of our emotions and passions, putting our reason
and faith to sleep.
We can also get tired, or rather, we can cover laziness as
tiredness. The general environment, the prevailing culture can be
insensitive to the value of little things. It only gives attention to
the big things, not the little ones, the desired success, not the
necessary effort.
What we have to do is to learn to find Christ in the little
things which comprise most of our day, if not of our whole life.
Another way of saying it is to learn to refer everything to Christ, no
matter how little or insignificant it is.
We should always be with Christ at every moment of our day,
offering things to him, asking him questions like, “Lord, how should I
deal with this particular situation, be it an exciting work, a boring
and tiring moment, etc.?”
We should never dare to do things simply on our own.
Especially when we find ourselves in difficulties, in a quandary, in
moments of temptation, etc., we have to go to Christ as quickly as
possible and cling to him as tightly as possible.
And we should never forget to thank him all the time, for
such gesture connects us with him in an abiding way. When we are with
Christ especially in the little things of our day, how can we doubt
about having heaven in us while still here on earth?
No comments:
Post a Comment