September 27, 2006
Small Things Done With Great Love
Try to picture the following scene: Imagine that you are watching a very large, high-definition, full-color plasma screen TV. The TV is connected to a state-of-the-art stereo system with superb speakers and surround-sound. Now imagine that you are watching a recording of two different people sweeping the floor of a room. I am picturing something similar in effect to a modern instant-replay of an American football game. The recording was made with several of the best cameras, offering different angles in which to watch the sweeping of the floor. The excellent sound system floods your ears with the soft sounds of the broom whisking. Got the picture?
Now a question for us modern people, “In such a viewing, are we seeing the full reality of what is happening? After watching this recording, have we obtained an accurate picture of what happened?” In terms of the basic facts, I want to answer yes. The recording captured the whole scene. I can truly describe the floor, the broom, the two different people who were sweeping, the appearance of the whole scene, etc.
Yet, the correct answer is no. We did not see the full reality of what happened. We did not see the interior, the hearts of the two floor sweepers. “Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). One of the floor sweepers was bored, unhappy, proud, arrogant, resentful and grumbly. The other sweeper was prayerful, happy, full of love, doing the work as an offering to God while meditating on the meaning, i.e. the constant need to sweep the dirt of sin out of the room of the heart.
Saint Therese the Little Flower once wrote, “Do small things with great love.” Saint Paul wrote, “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17). “So ... whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).
Let us pray for each other,
Fr. Luke Mary Fletcher, CFR
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