Never belittle the little things

By Fr. Roy Cimagala *

IN the gospel, the Kingdom of God is often compared to the little things. Christ

said that the Kingdom is like “a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the

garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush…” Again, he said that the

Kingdom is like “yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat

flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.” (cfr. Lk 13,18-21)

These words have no other purpose than to tell us that the magnificence of

heaven can be reached through the little ordinary things of our day as long as we

handle or do them with faith, hope and charity.

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.

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, even approaching the level of martyrdom.

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?

We therefore have to learn to find Christ in everything, doing so not in some

generic, theoretical way, but in a specific, practical way, one that is abiding and active.

This, of course, is a great challenge to all of us, but if we believe in this truth and we try

to conform ourselves to it and to persevere in it, for sure we can achieve a certain

degree of success.

It should be something normal to all of us to feel Christ’s presence in all things,

especially in our little ordinary events of the day, and to correspond to that presence as

actively as possible. This ideal is not only for some people who we usually regard as

mystics and very special people.

We can always find Christ anytime, for what it takes is only an act of faith that we

try to pursue as far as we can. If we persevere in this effort, for sure, sooner or later we

can find Christ even in the most ordinary and even the ugly things of our life.

* Chaplain Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com