It’s quite understandable to perennially feel that evil’s voice is louder than good’s, that hope is the undersized and underfed underdog, that compared to the darkness it is up against, the light can seem quite small. Yes, but against all odds the remnant remains, blessed; it is there, like the meager leaven for the dense dough, like the tiny mustard seed for the billowing bush, like the rejected stone seemingly useless for anything, let alone the cornerstone. But this wisdom is the core prophecy of the prophets and the Good News of the Gospel and the wisdom of the Beatitudes: the small is steady, the small is strong, the small spreads and has behind it the force of the Lord and nothing can shake it. How do we live it? To assemble and nourish small kernel communities of mutual love, humility, hunger, thirst and work for justice and peace.  

—Fr. Garrett Gundlach, SJ, is a Jesuit priest based at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem and serving diverse local communities.

God,
So this is the plan for your kingdom?
A living temple built by these tiny stones?
An enormous forest grown from fallen nuts?
Sprawling fields for harvest from sown seeds?
But can’t you do it faster and bigger?
Can’t you just speak and it is? 
Why so slow, why such small starts?
Why get us involved at all, 
your remnant,
your small sparks,
your leaven for the dough,
your mustard seeds? 
Teach me your wisdom
and grant the patience and perseverance 
to play my part.

Amen.

—Fr. Garrett Gundlach, SJ