SMALL THINGS WITH GREAT LOVE | KAIROS GLOBAL | NOVEMBER 2023

Author: Nycil Romis

Intro: Reflecting upon Pope Francis’ Gaudete et Exsultate and the lives of the saints, Nycil Romis tells us that holiness is within our reach. 

Every Christian who encounters the love of God will truly desire to be a saint, be it even just for a moment. That's what Jesus asked us to be. St Paul reiterates by repeatedly calling us saints. But as we move forward, we stumble; looking at our lives, nowhere do we see the makings or sanctity of a saint. St John Paul II asked us not to be afraid to become saints. So are we in or out? Do we still feel it's reserved only for a few, for the great ones?! 

In Pope Francis’ 2018 encyclical, Gaudete et Exsultate (Rejoice and be glad), he specifically exhorts us not to be afraid of holiness since ‘it will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy’ (GE 32). A must-read for every Catholic, he speaks right to us. After St Therese of Lisieux's writings, here we have a contemporary practical guide to living in holiness. It dispels the extraordinary image of a saint by strongly affirming the words of the Little Flower, St Teresa of Calcutta, and St Josemaria Escriva, that holiness is all about doing small things with great love, in our ordinary life situations.

This may sound weird to some since we often associate holiness with long hours of prayer or missionary work, not our daily life of struggle. While we have examples of great saints, Pope Francis says that they are not meant to be blindly emulated since the call to holiness is unique to each person, ‘bringing out the very best of themselves, the most personal gifts that God has placed in their hearts’ (GE 11). This means that each person – in his unique life situation including his home, workplace, neighbourhood, and the larger society – is placed there by God to live in holiness in his own way, according to the Lord's plan. 

So, what makes one different from others? Aren’t these the same things non-believers also do? Far different, for it’s in how we do them. In the words of St Josemaria Escriva, ‘Our life — a Christian’s life — has to be as ordinary as this: trying every day to do well those very things it is our duty to do; carrying out our divine mission in the world by fulfilling the little duty of each moment. Or rather, struggling to fulfil it. Sometimes we don’t manage, and when night comes, in our examination, we’ll have to tell Our Lord, “I am not offering you virtues; today I can only offer you defects. But with your grace, I will be able to count myself a victor.”’

St Therese of Lisieux could be the one person to help us differentiate. When we look at her little acts of love, like picking litter from the floor, tending to an untimely guest, or responding to an annoying person, we see nothing extraordinary in her daily life but how she did them made her different. She said: ‘Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.’ For her, attending to an untimely guest was something she never liked. But she went about it imagining that the Holy Family had come, and eagerly attended to them. She offered this up for souls in need of prayer. This is no ordinary human love. It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit welling up in our hearts and flowing out through our lives, helping us to forgive and forget, to be kind and patient, to show meekness instead of arrogance and pride. Surely, this bears witness to others. That's why Pope Francis says that ‘holiness is the most attractive face of the Church’ (GE 9) because it attracts people around us to Christ. But witnessing through our ordinary life is not an easy job. It's dying to our own selves. Everyone wants to be appreciated, to take credit for achievements, and to be better than others. Here we are, trying to help others grow but taking no credit, being humble to those who take advantage of us, using all our skills and abilities at our work. We may seem to move in the opposite direction but we are joyful, not attached as everyone else is, since our gaze is fixed upon heaven.

Such acts of love do not happen in a day. It grows out of love. The saints familiarise us with the many ways they grew in holiness, filling their lives to the brim with love. One important thing in this journey is prayer for it nourishes a daily commitment to love (GE 104). As St Teresa of Avila rightly pointed out, prayer is an act of love and all we need is a will to love, not words. St Therese of Lisieux goes one step ahead saying, if you do not even have that will, tell the Lord that you don't even have it so that you need his greater help. Hence this daily communion with God is acknowledging our nothingness and joyfully admitting that he is everything. 

St Therese of Lisieux further explains that ‘Holiness is a disposition of the heart, which renders us humble and little in the hands of God, conscious of our weakness, and confident, even daringly confident, in his fatherly goodness.’ Thus, this prayer does not end in a specific time of prayer but permeates through our everyday living since every situation in our daily life calls for a choice to die to ourselves, to be conscious of our weakness, and to express confidence in God. 

In the words of Pope Francis, when we feel overwhelmed, we can always cling to the anchor of prayer, which puts us back in God's hands (GE 114). This slowly turns our choices into those made out of love. Grace defuses vanity and makes possible the meekness of heart. The saints do not waste their energy complaining about the failings of others, they can hold their tongue before the faults of their brothers and sisters (GE 116). At the same time, making one right choice today does not necessarily guarantee the next choice to be right. It's a long battle we fight with ourselves until the end. That's why prayer becomes the most important source of power in this battle, be it liturgical prayers, Psalms, praying in our own words, or even sitting silently before Him without words.

Along with prayer, ‘small gestures’ or sacrifice is another aspect the saints used to grow in holiness. Elizabeth of the Trinity says; ‘Receive every trial, every annoyance, every lack of courtesy in the light that springs from the Cross; that is how we please God, how we advance in the ways of love.’ St Therese of Lisieux was a champion in transforming such opportunities as she enthusiastically asks us, ‘Miss no opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word.’ The saints found these small sacrifices very powerful weapons to fight their flesh or human inclinations. 

Sacrifices could be saying no to our own desires (like not trying to justify ourselves when we really want to do that), or going one mile ahead when we don't want to. Sometimes it's just accepting life's challenges with humility and not complaining. St Teresa of Calcutta puts it in a simpler way. ‘Holiness consists in accepting, with a smile, what Jesus sends us. It consists in accepting and following the will of God.’ In line with these gestures, Pope Francis speaks particularly about learning to be humble by welcoming humiliations in order to grow in holiness, since ‘humility can only take root in the heart through humiliations.’ Without humiliation, there is no humility or holiness… The holiness that God bestows on his Church came through the humiliation of his son (GE 118). Humility takes us far beyond – a rocket compared to a car. 

One might doubt, not knowing how to love like that. St Francis de Sales has an answer for this. He says, ‘You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.’ So, it’s all about jumping into the water… and we will learn how to swim since we have someone who is all-powerful within us. In this way, led by God's grace, we form through many small gestures the holiness God has willed for us, not as men and women sufficient unto ourselves but rather ‘as good stewards of the manifold grace of God’ (GE 18). 

If we still think it’s above our heads, St Ursula Julia Ledochowska reminds us of St Paul’s words saying, ‘Holiness does not demand anything great, beyond the ability of the person. It depends on God's Love; every daily act can be transformed into an act of love.’ And we see that many of the saints went beyond their normal abilities through that love. Since they comprehended the power of these gestures, many went forward, even asking the Lord for such opportunities to suffer, to love him more. St Josemaria Escriva expresses this by saying, ‘Love him with all the strength of all the hearts of all those who have most loved him. Be daring: tell him that you are crazier about him than Mary Magdalene, than either of his two Teresas, that you love him madly, more than Augustine and Dominic and Francis, more than Ignatius and Xavier.’

Finally, we have the power sources within the Church. In the Church, holy yet made up of sinners, you will find everything you need to grow towards holiness (GE 16). How beautiful it is for us to have a sacrament available to cleanse ourselves, the sacrament of sacraments for us to draw His grace abundantly, His scriptures to guide and strengthen us, holy places, the multitude of saints, and a community to belong and grow together. Pope Francis details the characteristics of this community as ‘a community that cherishes the little details of love,’ bringing relief, filling the gaps paying attention to the minutest things like noticing the one lost sheep among a hundred, ‘caring for each other, and creating an open and evangelising environment’ (GE 145). 

Growth in holiness is a journey in community, side by side with others (GE 141). This has to be read together with our calling to care for others, both within and outside the Church. A Christian having no concern for others is not worthy of being called a Christian since the very example of Jesus’ incarnation and death on the cross is that of concern. 

An academician by profession, Nycil Romis teaches at Rajagiri College. She lives with her husband and two kids in Ernakulam, India.