It Is Big To
Help The Little
Twenty-Sixth Week of Year II Monday September 26, 2016
(Begin reading the Book of Job)
The Responsorial is a cry of faith-supported hope: “Lord, bend your ear and hear my prayer” (Psalm 17).
The
drama of Job 1: 6-22 is that Job is
a righteous man. God is not punishing him for his sins, and Job will insist on
this steadfastly against all the arguments of his friends, who think God must
be. Nor does he fall into the sin of blaming God in anger and doubting God’s
goodness. He does not understand, but he will not judge God.
Sometimes
the daily news makes us feel we are getting messages similar to Job’s. One
disaster follows another. They don’t all affect us personally, but they affect
the world we are responsible for as stewards
of Christ’s kingship. One report after another makes it appear God is not reigning on earth; or that, if he
is, he is raining punishments down with anger against the human race.
Nevertheless,
our faith tells us God is in control, even though he allows freedom and
therefore allows sin to delay the establishment of his kingdom on earth. And he
is not “punishing” the human race. Most sufferings, even some “natural
disasters,” are the natural consequence of our sins, because sin is by
definition a destructive way of acting. Other sufferings are simply the result
of physical laws impartial in their consistency. But our duty as stewards is to persevere in faith by believing God is winning in
spite of appearances; and in fidelity
by continuing to work for God’s reign regardless of visible results. We just
keep praying, “Lord, bend your ear and
hear my prayer.”
In
Luke 9: 46-50 Jesus tells us that to
do great things for his kingdom, we need to do small things for the “little“
people: for children and those whom the world does not consider important. “Whoever welcomes this little child
on my account welcomes me.” To help God reign in our world we first have to let
his love reign in us — for God typically works through humble beginnings that
grow slowly like the mustard seed1, not through great impressive
projects. And what allows him to bear his fruit through great institutions and
undertakings is the humility and charity of those working within them —
especially the respect and kindness they show to all people, great and small
alike.
We
can get so impressed by some big group or institution with which we identify
that it surprises us to see people “not of our company” doing great things. We even try to stop them. But
Jesus said, “Whoever is not with
me (not you) is against me.”2 Those “not against you are for you.” Only
Jesus is the criterion.
1Matthew 13: 31-32; 17:20. 2Luke 11:23.
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