Beware! the small is big!

WORD 2day: Friday, 3rd week in Ordinary time

January 28, 2022: 2 Samuel 11:1-4,5-10,13-17; Mark 4: 26-34

Although today is the memory of the great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas, we could carry on with the flow of the Liturgy of the Word these days...as there is a continuity that is intended in the entire week's Word of God...today we are called to pay attention to another aspect of the seed: the smallness, the littleness, the seemingly insignificantness of the size of the seed... but the message is to beware, because even the small is big!

Jesus presents to us the imagery of the small, tiny seed that grows into a great big shrub, becoming home to hundreds of birds. He draws our attention to our small gestures, little words, simple smiles, loving looks that can really grow into the Reign of God. He invites us to pay attention to our daily faithfulness and faithfulness in small things, that can measure up to the mighty big Reign of God, even without our knowledge.

It does not stop there. The first reading adds another nuance, which though Jesus did not say, he would have certainly meant. Just as small acts of goodness and virtue can grow up into the Reign of God, our small acts of vice and negligence of virtue can grow into a mighty big blunder. That is what happens to David... David who was in most of the ways acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, permited little weaknesses and vices within him, to take the better of him. They grew to the extent of making him a treacherous murderer...for which he had to bitter repent at a later stage. On his part, he at least repented...but today not many are ready even for the repentance! Then how will the Reign grow?

Hence the warning today: beware of the seeds of vice and weakness within you! However small and negligible they look, they can grow into an entire ruin of your life! Beware! the small is big!