Little Christs

Hebrews 13:20–21

May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord, furnish you with all that is good, that you may do His will. Through Jesus Christ may He carry out in you all that is pleasing to Him. To Christ be glory forever. Amen.

It really is the little things that matter. Jesus doesn’t care how small, insignificant, or unsuccessful you are in the eyes of the world. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for the person you are, not the person you think you should be. It doesn’t matter what we bring to the table or what we think we can give. The best thing we can ever offer Him in return is ourselves.

And how do we do that? By doing the little things in life. By dying to ourselves. By offering small, quiet acts of kindness to each other. He may have redeemed us from our iniquity, but we are still charged to work out the salvation we are promised. I know — works, scary word. But no, silly, we are not saved by our deeds. We are saved by grace through faith, by the work of Christ Jesus. Yet we are still called to keep God’s commandments.

And what are those two pesky commandments we all know but hesitate to go full throttle on? Love. It is all rooted in love. Love of God and love of neighbor.

Love of God means giving God His due. He created you; you exist out of His love for you. So it is right and just to glorify Him, to bless Him, to worship Him, and to give sacrifice to Him. That is truly what love is; sacrifice. And how do we sacrifice? First, by getting out of bed and getting ourselves to Mass. Mass is the sacrifice — the re-presentation of the one and only sacrifice. Do this in remembrance of me, right? It is shared participation when the priest offers up our Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Father, and we all take part in it, from Calvary to the mountaintop of the Ascension.

Another form of sacrifice is surrendering yourself in your own daily life. That brings us to the second commandment of love: love of neighbor. To pour yourself out for God is to give yourself to others. Whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me. We are called to care for our neighbors. To give comfort for our neighbors. Let us all be there for our neighbor. And most importantly, pray for our neighbor’s immortal soul. In doing the smallest things for one another, we always show the greatest of love. And that love is the acknowledgement of God in all of us.  For we bear His name embedded in our DNA because He made us. 

 Jesus wants you. He wants to claim you for His own. He doesn't care about how much stuff you have. He could care less how much money you make or what your occupation might be.  All He wants is your time. He wants you. And when we give Him, ourselves, we become Him. He wants all of us to become Him. What does that mean?  Well, it means He wishes for all us to share with Him, His divine life.  He wants YOU to join Him in His Kingdom.  So what is stopping you from letting Him become you? 

Other sources: Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:8–10; Philippians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:4