Friday of the Second Week of Easter
One of my favorite phrases attributed to St. Teresa of Calcutta states, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” Just over a week ago, we welcomed our newest child, Dorothy Marie, to our family. Each time that our family has grown, we are always amazed by the outpouring of love and kindness from the community around us–family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, strangers in public. We have people offering prayers, blessings, simple and sweet text messages and emails of congratulations, and offering to bring by a meal. Best of all is the incredible love that Dorothy’s four older siblings have for her. They are so excited to hold her, talk to her, and tell their teachers, friends, and anyone who will listen about their new baby sister. It’s an overwhelming amount of love, an example and witness of God’s overabundance. An incredible, unifying gift of Christ’s love wrapped up in a little bundle–pure grace, unbounded blessing, absolute joy.
In today’s Gospel, we hear another example of God's great abundance. There was a boy who had five barley loaves and two fish. But the apostles logically asked, what good does such a small offering do when they had thousands of people to feed? We, of course, know the rest of the story; never underestimate the power of God’s grace. Jesus does his thing and they end up with more than they started with--twelve wicker baskets. The people were hungry; this boy didn’t have much but he was going to try to help. Christ’s response, as always, is one of grace and multitude.
How often do we feel like what we have to offer is meager? Yet, God takes whatever we have and does amazing things. That is the beauty of the church; we are all part of the body of Christ. Each of us has gifts to offer this world. We have a niece preparing to receive the sacrament of Confirmation tomorrow. This profound step in her faith journey is a response to our call to discipleship. Confirmation is her opportunity to say “YES!” to her faith; “Yes”, to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit. “Yes”, to be sent forth to live the gospel, to love and serve the Lord by our very lives--in both big and small ways. Christ sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples to give them the gifts to share the good news. Let us do the same. We are called to be disciples, to be saints, to be the love of Christ to others. And this often means that we offer small gestures, we “do small things with great love.” We give what we can, where we can to support others, to be the light of Christ. As much as Dorothy is the light in our family’s world today, so do we daily have the opportunity to continue to say, “yes”, and be the abundance of God’s love and outpouring of grace.
Peace,
Brandon Meyer