The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, small when it is sown, but when it is fully grown, it becomes a large bush providing much shelter. The Kingdom of God is like yeast mixed with flour so that it causes bread to rise.*
We might think it seems like God is not working through us. Faith is a seed. Faith is like yeast. If we believe, going forward trusting in God, embracing the faith God gives us, God can feed many through the bread God makes with our faith.
* Luke 13:18-21
Blessed are the poor in spirit.* If we are poor this way, God lives in us. God is all we need, and we have all we need. Satisfied, we rest content and glory in our littleness, since through it God is glorified.
Today at Mass we heard the testimony of Job. As we well know, Job had lost everything. As we are less aware, Job was dwelling in that place of confidence in God, even in the midst of disaster.
Job seemed to have nothing. Having lost all that could be seen, Job faced the most fundamental choice. Embracing his nothingness, his inability to help himself, Job expressed his assurance as he adored God.
Sure of who God is, Job proclaimed, "I know my Redeemer lives."** Even in the midst of what seems to be total loss, Job declared his unshaken faith in God.
Today at Mass, Father Cyprian said that Job lived in spiritual poverty, just as did Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate today. Both realized in darkness, we are blessed if we are poor in spirit.
For months at the end of her life, Saint Therese of Lisieux related the darkness that mocked her, telling her after death it would be still darker. Yet Therese, in her littleness, went on in faith in God.
God calls us to embrace our littleness. Therese went further, writing, "What pleases Him is that He sees me loving littleness and poverty."*** As we find ourselves poor, we can love how we must rely on Him.
If we love how God made us, poor and little, we embrace the will of God. If we welcome what others might see as only tragic events, we can ever more become the children trusting in God He made us to be.
In the midst of the coronavirus, beset by fire, we can accept what our present circumstances have to teach us. Like little children, we can trust that Our Father is loving us, since He is love.****
* Matthew 5:3
** Job 19:25
*** "The Story Of A Soul," Saint Therese of Lisieux.
**** 1 John 4:8,16
