the little things - 25th Sunday C 2013 benediction

“The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones;  and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.”

Here’s a poem by Cindy Tuttle entitled, “It's the little things that matter,” and I think it speaks about what Jesus is saying in the gospel today. 

We prepare for crisis

by learning how to handle the small problems

We learn to pray by noticing the little miracles

of God's creation

We grow in faith by showing love in little ways

We appreciate life by noticing the so called

little things that we take for granted

Yes, it's the little things in life that matter.

We prepare for crisis by learning how to handle the small problems.  Many of you are given offices, positions, responsibilities.  This may look small and perhaps unrelated to the bigger things that you will be called to do in the future.  What does being a housecleaning chairman got to do with leading the parish of Molo or Lapaz?  How does being an intramural chairman help you to become a better priest?  How will dish washing help you to become a committed husband or effective in your future ministry?  It is a small thing indeed compared to what you are called to become, but you have to understand that you learn to handle life’s bigger problems by handling the little challenges that you meet in your area of responsibility, you learn to handle big commitments by becoming committed in the little things you have decided to do or are expected from you.  Some of you are perhaps afraid to become emcees for our programs and that is evident on the fact that we are becoming more and more reliant on just one or two emcees these past few months.  But remember the little things that you do with the microphone today, the little things that you do in public is preparing you for that day when you have to speak and captivate the crowd with the word of God. 

The poem says we learn to pray by noticing the little miracles of God’s creation.  Do you notice the little miracles, do you pray the little miracles – the miracle of food that appears on our table, the miracle of kindness that helps us in our vocation, the miracle of our parents, of our teachers and the miracle which is the presence of our formators – do you pray the little miracles.  Teresa of Avila is a doctor of prayer – she came all the way from the moat of the palace to the seventh mansion, the peak of prayer.  But she started this by praying from the moat, to the first mansion, by praying the little miracles in her day and in her life.

Little things matter.

And here is another point which I would like to raise because of its affinity with our gospel today.  I got it from an article in a blog by Todd Golfard which he started by saying, how you do anything is how you do everything.  The point of this saying is this – to develop in ourselves the awareness that the little things we say and do, play a direct role in the bigger picture of our existence.  What you do to the small things that happen to your life is reflected in how you do other things, and even bigger things, in your life.  Kon nagalinapta lang ang gamit chances are indi lang kwarto ang nagalinapta, indi lang desk ang kalat, basi pati ang paminsaron, basi pati ang kabuhi.  When you are given a small task for example how do you do it, ginapadali mo lang kag ginapahapusan or gina-utihan mo gid, naga-focus ka gid sa imo ginabuhat.  The small stuff is a good measure as to how people put their best effort in a given situation.

Take for example relationships.  Be aware of parallels.  May nagkadto anay nga semianrista sa akon fourth year college.  Namangkot sia, "father puede na ako makapari." Sabat ko, "indi."  "Ti," siling niya, "kon sayuron puede na ako gali makapang-asawa?"  Sabat ko, "indi."    How you do anything is how you do everything.  Kon indi ka ready magpari indi ka man na ready mang-asawa.  There are parallels.

It is necessary to be aware, the author said of the smaller decisions and situations we make because they tell us a lot about our habitual ways of being.