GREAT THINGS START FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS

Great things start from small beginnings! This is a jiggle song being use my a popular chocolate drink. It is so popular that until now, since 1995, it is still in use. One of the probably reasons, perhaps, why this jiggle arrest the attention of the viewers is that speaks of a perennial truth in human life. Great things start from small beginnings.   

In 2004, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales inaugurated the Pondo ng Pinoy. It is a movement that aims to gather small donations like 25 centavos continuously from everyone, rich and poor alike, and from this fund, help the poorest of the poor in the country by poverty alleviating projects such as feeding, livelihood housing, scholarship programs. Pondo ng Pinoy’s motto speaks of the means it employs o realize its goal: Anumang magaling, kahit maliit, basta malimit, ay patungong langit. 25 centavos may seem to be too little and insignificant vis-à-vis the multi million transactions in our economy. What can a 25 centavo do? What can a little thing do?

In the gospel, the kingdom of God is likened to a yeast which a woman took to knead into three measures of flour, until the whole mass of dough began to rise. The kingdom of God is likened to a very little thing; to a microbial organism; very tiny; seemed to be insignificant. How can a tiny thing represent the grandeur of God’s kingdom?

God is fond of using small and insignificant things and persons to represent Him and His kingdom. Moses had a speech defect. He could hardly speak before people so much so that he needed a spokesperson. Jonah is faint hearted so much so that when God sent him to Nineveh to preach repentance to the Ninevites, he tried to escape. He came down to the history as the runaway prophet. Jesus chose to be born in a stable; a lowly place deprive of the opulence fit for His royal’ status as the King of kings. He chose uneducated fishermen, sinful tax collectors to be members of His preaching bureau. Peter who seemed to be boastful, rash tongued, wavering dedication and commitment to the Lord, and who denied Jesus three times, was chosen to be the first among the apostles. From the insignificance of this persons and things, God chose to show his magnificence.

Imagine! Small and insignificant things and persons able to transform other than themselves, more than themselves?!? Quite a paradox, if not contrary, to the world we live in today. In our world where importance lies on the biggest, largest, most powerful etc, the kingdom of God comes in little and small things. Our saints found the kingdom of God in small things in their lives. St. Therese encountered Jesus in the frying pan she washed. She was sometimes found in an ecstasy, her face rapt and beautiful, her rigid hands grasping the frying pan. St. Martin de Porres found solace in Jesus, by sweeping the floors of their convent in Peru. And St. Joseph Cupertino embraced the Blessed Mother in a broken statue, in a stable. From these little things, where the saints encountered God, they are able to inspired millions of Christian through generations. Small things yet powerful. Same is true with the little things in our life. We can find God in these little things. More so, we can bring God in this world in the little things we do; by simple gesture of greeting a person; Hello po. Kumusta?!? A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul (St. Therese of Child Jesus). Never be ashamed to embrace the small  things given to us, the lowly positions and chores entrusted to us. Accept them and do them with great love. Remembering that it is in these small things that our strength lies (Mother Teresa of Calcutta).

Little things show their real true value by the way they perform. The yeast is a very tiny organism. In fact you can only see it through a microscope. Though little it may be, the yeast proves to be of great use in food processing. It can transform grape juice into wine, and leavened a flour to increase its mass. In ancient time, they though yeast poses a miraculous, almost magical, properties because of its capacity to transform the grape juice and flour, not until in 1860’s when Louis Pasteur saw the yeast through a microscope and explained its properties. The yeast is, indeed, a little thing that can do more than what is expected from it. Truly the yeast is tiny but terrible.  So is the kingdom of God.

But in order for the little things to unleash their potent effects, they have to be acted upon. The yeast of the Kingdom of God has to be chosen and mixed, kneaded with the flour, and proofing (waiting).

To choose and mix. The best quality product is achieved when the flour, water and yeast are used in proportions, each ingredient relative to the others is more important than the overall quantities. We have to choose and accept the kingdom of God in our lives. This entails understanding God’s message of love for us, and the knowledge of God’s commandment of love. Choosing and mixing the Kingdom of God in our lives demands the exclusion other elements in our life that may not be proportion in the way of life we wish to achieve.  

To knead. Kneading distributes the yeast evenly through the dough and develops and strengthens the gluten in the flour to form the framework of the bread. A well developed dough can be identified by pressing your finger (firmly) into the surface of the dough - if it springs back, it has been developed/kneaded sufficiently. Underdeveloped dough will result in a holey, crumbly texture and poorly structured bread. To knead the Kingdom of God in our lives is to spread it all aspect of our lives. To be a Christian does not only mean going in the Church every Sunday. It goes beyond our Sunday obligations. Our being Christian has to permeate in everything that we do. Love must pervade in the very lives we live. And we have to knead the yeast of the kingdom of God in all aspect of our lives, so that when trying times come, we will spring back for the Kingdom of God has been developed/kneaded sufficiently in our lives. 

To proof. When finished mixing and kneading, the dough is gently shape into round and place in a bowl, that is double the size of the dough to allow for expansion/proofing of the dough. Leave the dough to proof until it is double its original size. To totally allow the effect of yeast to take effect, there is the proofing period; a waiting time. We wait for the Kingdom of God to take effect and bear fruit in our lives. The mixing and kneading processes do not immediately bring us to the much-sought happiness. We have to wait until the right time when the yeast of the Kingdom of God allows us to expand; expand our capacity to love, expand our capacity to receive from the Lord, more so our capacity to give to others. Waiting can sometimes be boring. It can be for days, weeks, years, and even a lifetime; waiting for the Kingdom of God bear fruit in our lives. But we have to wait, remembering our work and very lives is not our own doing but of the Lord’s. Only God brings all that we do to perfection, in His time, in God’s time!

The process of choosing, mixing, kneading, and proofing of the yeast of the Kingdom of God in our lives; transforming ourselves in breads for other; may be an uncomfortable feeling. It will jolt us, shock us to our very core. It may demand giving up our caprices and personal choices. It can be a painful and sometimes boring unpleasant experience. But do not be afraid. The Lord is with us. Even before we become bread for others, the Lord had become bread of life for already. He knows the feeling. He will be careful with us. After all, it is the Lord who gently mixes the yeast of the Kingdom in our lives. It is the Lord who kneads the yeast into all aspects of our lives. It is with the Lord with whom we patiently wait for the yeast to take effect; for the kingdom of God to bear fruit in our lives; until the time we become breads that can sustains our brothers and sisters.