Friday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)
FRIDAY, Jan. 29th Mk. 4: 26-34 Jesus said: “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God… It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
Part 1: Christians are Small People… by Madeleine Delbrel (+1964) French laywoman, writer, and mystic devoted to the poor.
Part 2: SANCTITY IN SMALL THINGS by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
PART 1: Christians are Small People… by Madeleine Delbrel (+1964)
The law of Christ may only be lived by people who are gentle and humble of heart. It is this gentleness and humility which are the characteristics of Jesus Christ in His filial love for God and His fraternal love for human beings.
Whatever their personal gifts, Christians are small people. Small people, whatever their place in society, their jobs, their possessions, their class, their race, whatever the development and power of the human sciences, whatever the discoveries concerning the prodigious evolution of the human race and its history—in spite of all this, Christians remain people who are small.
Small in God’s presence because God created them and they depend on Him. Whatever the journeys that mark their lives and their fortunes, they came from God and they are going to God. They are gentle like weak, loving children, close to their Father who is strong and loving.
They are small because they know that they are in God’s presence and they know only a few things, can do only a few things, and are limited in their love and in their knowledge. They do not argue about the will of God in the events that happen, nor do they argue about what Christ has commanded them to do, so that in these events they may themselves, for their part, do the will of God.
They are gentle like the trusted and active performers of a work, the enormousness of which is hidden from them, while yet they know their own particular task.
Part 2: SANCTITY IN SMALL THINGS by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV
As Jesus watched at the entrance of the Temple the money being thrown into the treasure-box, He did not pay so much attention to the rich and their large sums that they threw in. Indeed they wanted to be seen and applauded for their abundance given ostentatiously.
Then a poor widow threw a few small coins in the treasure box barely amounting to anything! This was the person that Jesus looked at with great love and approval. Why? Not for the economic substance of her offering—it was barely anything. Rather, Jesus read the depths of her heart. She was giving generously all that she had to live on.
The message is the following: man can see and judge from appearances. But Jesus reads the inner movements of the human heart. What often is worthy of praise in the eyes of the world, Jesus despises. On the contrary, what the world deems as insignificant, Jesus highly approves and praises.
Saint Therese and her Little Way can be our way and the way and path to holiness! Holiness does not depend simply on the greatness of the action, but rather on the intensity of love that accompanies the action.
In other words, the secret to holiness on a daily basis is trying to do the ordinary things of everyday life with extraordinary love. That is the key! So much so that Saint Therese was known to say: “Pick up a pin from the sewing room floor for the love of God and you can save a soul.” Picking up a pin from the floor physically speaking is no big deal! However, if this action is done in the Presence of God, for the purpose of pleasing God, and with great purity of intention then indeed, it has infinite value in the eyes of God.
Most of us are not involved in monumental and monolithic activities that will make the front page of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. On the contrary, many of our actions are the most ordinary and mundane. But they can have infinite value if we know the secret of offering them up to God.
The normal activities of a homemaker do not make the morning newspaper or evening news. Sweeping the floor, taking out the garbage, buying, preparing and serving meals, and then afterwards cleaning the pots, pans and dishes—all of these are the glorious routine of thousands of Home-makers and Moms on the Highway to Heaven!
However, if the Mom does all this work complaining and with a scowl on her face, playing the role of a poor victim, then her merit in the eyes of God is reduced to almost nothing. To the contrary, if this Mom rises in the morning and offers her day to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, then willingly offers everything she does during the day to please God, sanctify her family, and save souls, then her actions have great value!
Naturally, the same applies to a Father going to work day after day for the support and sustenance of his wife and children. All must be offered daily and willingly to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the glory of God, and the eternal salvation of his family, then his actions have great value in the eyes of God.
What can be of infinite value for the sanctification of our daily actions are the following. First, we do all our actions through the powerful intercession of Mary, “God’s Masterpiece of Creation.” Second, we unite our actions to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered throughout the world that day!
First, the importance of going to Jesus through the intercession of Mary. Mary is the short-cut to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Saint Louis de Montfort paints this image. A poor man wants to give a bruised apple to the King. No way will the poor man have access to the King; much less will the King receive the apple, especially a bruised apple. However, the poor man knows the Queen and the Queen has a real affection for this poor man. So the Queen takes the apple, cleans it, polishes it, and places it on a golden platter next to a beautiful rose. The King, loving the Queen, receives the apple most willingly and with delight, not because of the quality of the apple, rather because of the person who gave him the apple, his lovely bride, the Queen.
It must be the same for us! Our actions are like the apple. In and of themselves, our actions are often tainted and spoiled by our enormous self-love and egotism. However, if we can give ourselves and our actions to Jesus through the hands and heart of the Queen, then Jesus, who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, will not refuse it, but receive it most willingly. In other words, Mary can help ennoble and sanctify our smallest actions.
Second, we must unite our actions and intentions to Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Every Holy Mass that is offered has infinite value. Why? For the simple but profound reason that Jesus is offering Himself as a Victim of expiation to the Father. The Father looks at His Son and says: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The Father can deny His Son nothing!
Now how is this translated from the mystical into the practical? Not too complicated! Go to Mass, but arrive early before Mass starts. Give yourself at least a good 15 minutes. Now open up your heart to the fullest with an infinite trust in Jesus, His love for the Father, His love for you, and His love for the entire world. In opening your heart place all that you were, are, and will be on the altar before Mass has even started. Your day and your activities—place them now all on the altar, absolutely everything—hold nothing back: the daily grind of work in the workplace, or your cooking and cleaning in the home, your battle with your teenage son, your struggle with your spouse, your fear of the future and insecurities in the present, your headache and clouded mind!
The key is that you want to place all on the altar even before Mass has started. You are offering yourself and all that you have been, and are, and all that you will be to the Lord in the course of the day. Every minute detail of who you are, what you are about, what you would desire for yourself and your family, is of infinite importance to Jesus. Nothing escapes the loving eyes of Jesus. He knows even the number of hairs on your head and when one falls to the ground! The Lord Jesus indeed cares for the whole world, but also for each and every one of us individually.
Then, while Mass is being offered, especially during the Consecration of Jesus’ Body and Blood, all that you have placed on the altar is being lifted on high to the Majestic Throne of the Eternal Father, who sees you but through His beloved Son in whom He is well-pleased. For the beloved Son, He can deny nothing.
Then, even more important, receive Holy Communion into the depths of your heart and soul. If you are well-disposed with a burning heart filled with love for the Lord Jesus, then there will be an explosion of graces. Your small actions will have infinite value because your smallest of actions have been offered to the Eternal Father through the loving Heart of Jesus!
In sum, let us learn the art of sanctity. It is not so much in the greatness of the action, but in the purity of intention and intensity of love. For this reason, of paramount importance is learning to offer ourselves to God through the pure and Immaculate Heart of Mary, and through Jesus the spotless Victim offered to God the Father in the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Copyright 2021 Oblates of the Virgin Mary
St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA
