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OPINIONS
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(September
22 – September 28, 2008) Analysis Fr. Roy
Cimagala Nothing’s small IF
we closely follow our Lord’s footsteps,
we will soon realize nothing in our life is too small to merit our attention.
There’s really nothing of little importance. If there’s love, everything
becomes great and significant. We can gather this
intriguing truth from our words of our Lord himself: “He who is faithful in
little is also faithful in much. He who is unjust in little is also unjust in
much.” (Lk 16,10) He backed up these
words with his deeds. First, he as the second person of the Blessed Trinity
became man, in a phenomenon described in “Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a
servant…” (2,5-7) He was born poor, he
spent 30 of his more or less 33 years of earthly life doing ordinary little
things as one more citizen in Though feeling the
burden of his tasks, he always managed to show affection to everyone, to be
meek and humble, patient and merciful. And his miracles were done with utmost
discretion and naturalness. These teaching and
example of Christ were followed by saints and holy men and women, notably our
Lady, This is what we have
to understand clearly, deeply and consistently. Unless we internalize this teaching,
our effort to love and to serve God and others would be hampered and
compromised. It could even be averted. How can one
sincerely say he loves God and others when he ignores and even ridicules the
little things? It is in our care
for the little things that we show our love and build that love up. It makes
our heart beat with love all the time. It is what feeds our heart and soul. The little things
offer us many occasions to develop all kinds of virtues, purifying and
identifying us more and more with Christ. It teaches us order, tenacity and
perseverance, spirit of sacrifice, temperance. When properly
pursued, the little things make us strong and prudent, and so assure us of
our continuing presence of God that we grow in integrity and unity and consistency
in our life. Though we have our
own share of frailties and weaknesses that make us prone to tiredness,
laziness and vulnerability to temptations, if we take care of little things,
we can manage to rise above all these conditions. The care for little
things is really necessary for us to learn and master. Especially today when
we seem to be seduced to care only for the big things and the popular and
what seem to be powerful, we have to rev up our will to focus more on the
little things. This duty is urgent.
The big things mean nothing if not ably supported by the little things. And
around us is a persistent bombardment, especially in the media, of the
twisted value of puffing up the big things at the expense of the little
things. Let’s see to it that
this love for the little things never escapes from our heart and mind. We
have to nourish it with our prayers, with our constant efforts to make good
use of our time and to be generous in the little details involved in our work
and in our relations. In our dealings with
others, we should try always to smile and to be nice, going above our usual
differences and conflicts big and small. Let’s see to it that we make daily
resolutions to renew and refresh our love for the little things. Let’s grow in the
virtues of living in God’s presence, zeal to love others, warts and all,
spirit of penance and hard work, by dint of the repetition of small acts. This is how we build
our spiritual edifice, putting one little stone on top of another or mixing
them with sand, making and pouring concrete, placing those iron bars and
thousands of other little items. Email:
roycimagala@hotmail.com Ilocos Times copyright 2008 |
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