“Small Acts of Love”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
August 10-11, 2019
Scripture: Luke 12:32-48
I was thinking the other day about the time when we closed my parents’ home. I found lots of pictures of me and my brothers. Mom had even stored away the gifts we had given her as kids. There were drawings and other little trinkets we had given her…refrigerator art…and she kept them all. Were they good? No. They were terrible. But she cherished them enough to save them. One time when I was five years old, I gave her some flowers – dandelions – I thought they were beautiful, and she made a big fuss over them and even put them in a glass on the window sill. She cherished our small acts of love. Now that I’m a priest, little kids have given me pictures they have drawn, and I have them in the Sacristy because they, too, are small acts of love.
Just as we make a big deal over the gifts our children give us, God delights in them too. Like the saints, we have our own inconveniences, discomforts, anxieties. Also like the saints, we can give them to Him. It’s what we have, and it’s what we can give. They are our gifts…our small expressions of love for Him. These small acts of love make the Lord smile, and we are called to do them.
Sometimes people will say they are going to take highfalutin theology classes to increase their religious knowledge. Well, how’s that working for you? This is an example of spiritual pride. God doesn’t care if we can name the twelve tribes of Israel. We need to be more like the young, uneducated Saint Therese of Lisieux, who said “When I am small, I am safe.”
How will you apply this message to your life? Will you look for ways to make God smile? Will you make small acts of love?