A Faith Formation teacher asked her eight eager 10-year old students to hold up their hands if they would give one million dollars to the missionaries.
The response was great. All their hands went up immediately and they shouted, “YES!” Their generous arms raised again when the teacher asked, “Would you give them $1,000?” She tried again, “How about $100?” and their proud arms waved like tall trees in the wind.
Then the teacher asked the final question, “Would you give just one dollar to the missionaries?” Again, the students exclaimed, “Yes,” except for one of the boys. He remained silent and lowered his arm. The teacher asked him, “Why didn’t you say ‘Yes’ this time?”
“Well,” he stammered, “I actually have a dollar.”
There is no doubt that our response to today’s Gospel is, we want to be Disciples of Jesus. But, honestly there may be times we may not be willing to give or to share our possessions. Times when the call to be a Disciple seems too much for us, for me.
This weekend (Sunday, September 4, 2016) Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be “Proclaimed a Saint” by Pope Francis.
As you may know, the Missionaries of Charity that Mother Teresa founded minister to the “poorest of the poor.” (Talk about being Disciples of Jesus in today’s world!)
If we were to sum up the message of Mother Teresa it would probably be, “that love and caring are the most important things in the world.”
To quote Mother Teresa, “do small things with great love.”
Today, tomorrow, during the coming week… what daily things, what ordinary things, what routine things, what small things might we do with great love and maybe even have a smile on our face?