Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

When my sister managed to get into a liberal arts college complete with a full scholarship, I was cheering her on with all my might. Her victory was so much sweeter because she had not done well in high school, to the point that some of her guidance counselors recommended she not go to college at all. In fact, she didn’t immediately make it to that liberal arts college once she (barely) graduated from high school. But she wanted to go – she had aspirations (like becoming a lawyer and providing legal advice for disadvantaged people) that required college to fulfill them. The first year after high school, I remember she was a bit in despair, feeling like she’d never make it. But she kept her goal in mind, and took some classes on the side, trying to bring up her academic standing. It worked. Two years after she’d graduated from good old Stone Creek High, she made it into a college and had her way paid. And now – she is a lawyer, doing exactly what she’d always wanted. She works as a public defender, and on the side, provides free legal advice to homeless citizens. I’m just constantly amazed by her work.

I remember this point about my sister’s life every time I fear that the world is full of underdogs who don’t get anywhere, and powerful people who can do nearly anything they want. I think my sister’s story is an example of how God is choosing those who seem not very great, to do great things – just like in today’s readings.

In the first reading (Deuteronomy 4:32-40), we continue our meditations on the great story of Moses and the Israelites, whom God has led from Egypt. Here, Moses is reminding them what great things God has done for them. They need reminding, again and again, for it is all too easy to see those who are big and powerful (like the most powerful ancient empires of Egypt, Philistine and Assyria) and forget the others. Moses says, though, that God “personally led you out of Egypt by his great power, driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your heritage, as it is today.” Those other great nations may still exist – but that does not change the fact that God has chosen small, seemingly insignificant Israel to follow him. It is because of this favor on the small people, in fact, that Moses says is the reason the people should “fix in your heart, that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below.”

Jesus’ words (Matthew 16:24-28) offer similar reflection for us, when he says that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” These are challenging words to understand, unless we first understand that God has pretty much always chosen the underdog, the seemingly insignificant person, to do God’s work, in spite of that person’s weaknesses and difficulties. (David the great King of Israel was a shepherd boy; Jesus was a backwater peasant; Moses himself was a murderer who fled Egyptian justice.)

These scriptures call upon us to reflect on all those times (as with my sister) that the small has become great, against the odds. Those are the places and people and events where I think God is most definitely acting in our world today. There will always be others with more power and prestige – but that does not take away from the fact that still, the ones we see as insignificant are significant enough to God.

- Jana M. Bennett