FR. NONO ALFONSO, SJ
BOOM! We can almost imagine the fire of Yahweh descending on Elijah’s offering, engulfing it, and in the process vindicating Elijah not just before Baal’s fake prophets but before all of the world. We can almost see Elijah celebrating, gloating, and humiliating his enemies. And we can all relate to this scene. We also hunger for God’s justice, victory, and the triumph of good before evil, and we want all these demonstrated in the most extravagant, grandiose, dramatic way. Aside from Elijah’s show, we want the parting of the red sea, Jonah’s spectacular survival of the whale, and of course, Jesus’ astounding miracles. Yes, we want the fireworks. As if the glory of God must always be accompanied by all the drama.
And yet, Elijah himself will learn later that that is not always the case with God. A few chapters from today, we hear God telling Elijah to rendezvous with him atop a mountain. Elijah went to the meeting place and started looking for God in the storm, earthquake, and fire, but God was not in any of these but in a gentle passing breeze. Remember that final encounter between Jesus and Pontius Pilate. Pilate was interrogating Jesus and was so incensed by Jesus’ silence. He said, if you only knew of my power over your life, to which Jesus responded, you have no power over me; had I willed it, the host of angels from heaven could have easily descended upon the earth to save me and to pulverize my enemies. Isn’t that scene reminiscent of Elijah’s confrontation with Baal’s prophets? Imagine indeed if once again fires from heaven saved the day for Yahweh? Will the glory of God be demonstrated and vindicated and accomplished then?
No. It is human nature to always look up or out for the spectacular, miraculous, and melodramatic. But in the Gospel today, Jesus clarifies that for us. The small things matter, he says. The small letter, the smallest part of the letter, the smallest commandment—all these are important, he says and must be obeyed and accomplished. For all intent and purposes, our lives are made up of these “small things.” The tiny daily routines that tire us out. The minor roles we play or the small jobs we perform grudgingly. The small lives we live and many times find meaningless or insignificant in what we call the greater scheme of things. But Jesus is telling us now, no, all these small things make up the whole fabric of our world, our reality. They are all important. Arundhati Roy’s bestseller entitled The God of Small Things shares the same message—we tend to focus on the big things when what matters is the here and now, when our lives are made up of small harmless incidents that lead to the huge moments, including turning points. We are familiar with the saying that the devil is in the detail, but someone wrote, and so is God.
In his book Cannonball moments: telling your story, deepening your faith, Eric Clayton writes: “God isn’t interested only in the broad strokes of our lives but also in the tiny, mundane moments. And for good reason. We spend a lot of time in these ordinary moments than we do in big, adventurous blockbuster action. Our lives are the sum of so many quiet moments; we might call these mundane moments the building blocks of who we are and what we love.” Dear friends, in the Church’s calendar, ordinary time has resumed. Embrace the smallness of our lives in this season, for there we will encounter our Lord. Amen.
08 June 2022, Wednesday