Becoming Small so as To Welcome God’s Greatness
The next step on our journey toward Christmas is to enter the mystery of “smallness”–a paradox because only those who are small are able to welcome the greatness of God. The Eternal One makes himself small: he whom the whole universe cannot contain takes on flesh and enters human history with the body of a child.
Nothing is impossible for God, but out of all the choices he could have made, he opted to become a child so that his tenderness would bring about the slow transformation of heart that can lead every person to resist the human hunger for “greatness.”
To be small is one of the most profound expressions of love: what is small does not scare people; it does not seek to prevail over them or dominate them. Instead, it finds a niche in every place and situation. It takes only one small seed to generate a tree or fertilize a womb. Love lies in the details, in the small things of life that often seem unimportant but that give a unique color to every relationship. Only small things are able to grow and induce growth, like yeast in dough.
We are not the ones who save the world, yet the Lord almost never acts without the contribution we make by allowing him to “dissolve” us in society–acting like salt to give it flavor even though we are small and weak. And it is precisely from among the small and humble that God chooses his servants to bring to completion his plan of salvation.
It is the small things that illuminate the big ones. The same is true of us: if we want to understand complicated things, then we must become simple and small in order to penetrate the depths of our soul.
Prayer
Lord, from eternity you entered time.
Give us the peace to feel like weaned children
in your safe and welcoming arms.
Give us the courage to decrease
so that you can increase in our life.
Give us the patience to wait
for the seeds that were planted to bear fruit.
