Fidelity in the

little things

•

that, through the fidelity

of His children,

the great designs of God

may be fulfilled

by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen. First of all, I would like to wish our heavenly Father, the good Eternal Father whose feast it is today, to find, this year, in His children of the earth, as much joy, consolation and comfort as possible. During the course of this year, may He find compensation and consolation among His children, and especially among us. My brothers and sisters, the better to give Him this joy, this consolation, we give you as the watchword for this year: fidelity in the little things. May He find, this year, in each one of us, fidelity, as perfect an application as possible in the accomplishment of His desires and of our daily duty! In the Gospel, Jesus recommends to all those who want to follow Him, Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. 1 This divine perfection is manifested in the Person of Jesus: His life, His examples, His teaching. To the Apostle Philip who asked Him, Show us the Father, and it is enough for us, Jesus answered, Philip, who sees Me, sees also My Father. 2 Now, the perfection Jesus invites us to is His very own perfection. Dear brothers and sisters, it is therefore my wish for you that you be faithful to God, His Will and all His desires: first of all to His commandments, His Holy Gospel, and also to His good pleasure. For those of us who are religious: fidelity to our holy vows, fidelity to our holy Rule and regulations. Desolation has become widespread on earth through infidelity, disobedience to God, first of all by our first parents, Adam and Eve, created by God clothed with innocence and perfectly happy. But He also created them free. And despite these gifts, they violated the only dictate made by God. It is through that sin — the original sin — that all sorts of woes have come beating down upon humanity and even all of creation. Before the sin of Adam and Eve, everything was harmonious on earth. Evil, suffering and every disorder came through sin. Humans so often complain and even attribute their woes to God! This is great insolence toward God, even if it is not altogether conscious. People complain as if God were responsible, were guilty of the sufferings that afflict us. Certainly, as Scripture says, Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you, 3 but ever since the original sin and all the sins committed afterward, man must be tried and tested by suffering. Fortunately, Jesus came. Perfect Innocence, God incarnate, He came voluntarily to suffer on earth for our Redemption and our salvation, to draw out the way for us. As early as His birth in Bethlehem, we see the meek Infant Jesus in poverty, cold and want, lacking all comfort.

Two great models of fidelity

Mary, the Holy Mother of God and His foster father Joseph, very innocent themselves, accept all sorts of woes. Reparation was needed because of the disobedience of humans, and so the Son of God was made flesh; He dwelt among us 4 and He suffered. Mary and Joseph also had much to suffer, and they were faultlessly faithful to the divine Will in all kinds of sorrows and unfavorable situations. Be faithful to grace, faithful to your conscience. Our conscience is the voice of God; our conscience is enlightened by the commandments of God, enlightened by the Holy Gospel, and we must be faithful to it. Joseph and Mary were faithful to it. They left Bethlehem for Egypt, they went into exile to obey God. They left with almost nothing. Yes, they had the Child Jesus with them, and that is not nothing! But as for human resources, the things we call material goods, they had nothing! Then, after several years, to respond faithfully to the desires of God once again, they returned to Nazareth. And with never a complaint! Only attentive submission, total abandonment to Providence and to God’s good pleasure. Mary and Joseph suffered much, though they were innocent and even perfectly faithful. Suffering and contradiction come also to visit us, ordinary mortals, and it is often because of our infidelities. Not necessarily, for they may be trials from God, but we must admit that it is often because of our infidelities. Most humans do not think they are unfaithful; they find that they are very correct. They are living in sin, they offend God to their heart’s content in all kinds of ways, and there’s no problem! But the person who is attentive to God, who really wants to be faithful, does not see things this way. He discovers his infidelity, his responsibility. We are often responsible for the woes that afflict us and for those that may afflict our neighbor. Why do we so easily justify ourselves and think we are not guilty of anything? Because we are negligent, blind or heedless. To be on the road to redemption, first we must acknowledge our infidelity. We are on the road of salvation when we are attentive to being faithful, or at least acknowledge our infidelity as promptly as we can. Jesus, the Word of God who comes to repair all things, became obedient unto death, even unto death on the cross, 5 that is, totally faithful to His Father’s Will. In all the virtues, Jesus is the greatest model we could ever have. In the footsteps of Jesus, and following the example of Mary and Joseph, all the Saints were as faithful as possible in the practice of all the virtues: diligent, unremitting, sustained fidelity. My brothers and sisters, that is our watchword for you this year: fidelity. Jesus says to us: He who is faithful in the little things is faithful also in great ones. And he who is unfaithful in the little things will be unfaithful also in great ones. 6 We wish you fidelity. I will address the wish for this year to our heavenly Father. I wish for Him that His design, His plan, be fulfilled. He has some beautiful, great, immense plans. Plans of a splendor, a beauty that He alone can conceive. That splendid plan hinges on our fidelity in the little things that He asks of us from day to day. You can be certain, His great designs depend upon this humble fidelity. In the great things, it is God Himself who acts through His child. In the little ones too, but in the little ones there is more activity, vigilance and effort by the person to conform to God and rid himself of anything within himself that might displease Him. In the great things, it is more God acting directly through the soul totally abandoned to His action. It is now no longer I that live, says Saint Paul, but Christ lives in me. 7 That is why God was able to accomplish wonderful things through this great Apostle and through a multitude of Saints. Christ lived in them; He had “taken them over” because they had furnished the perseverant effort of fidelity in the little things. We could make a list of all the times, all the places, all the virtues in which we must be faithful, but let us sum it all up in one sentence: My brothers and sisters, be faithful to what you know is good and pleasing to God, and avoid what you know is bad. Pay great attention to it. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus said, “It happens occasionally that I am distracted from the thought of God for a few minutes.” This is very impressive when we consider how frail we are, how easily distracted by earthly things, distracted by ourselves, our selfishness, our self-love. It is really impressive. My brothers and sisters, and all the Christians on earth: this year let us be faithful to not offending God. That is the first fidelity, not to offend God. Let us be faithful to charity; and in that realm, despite all the attention we might give it, so many failings can escape us! By inattention, inadvertence or light-headedness, by insensitivity toward our neighbor or his needs, by indifference or a lack of empathy. Certainly you are applying yourselves to the practice of charity; but my brothers and sisters, you know how easily we can fail in this first duty which Jesus gives us, the duty to love our neighbor as ourselves and as He Himself has loved us. 8 We do not always realize it, but we make our neighbor suffer. And could it be that we do not realize it because we are a little too selfish? That is one infidelity. We must be aware of it and not justify ourselves for it.

To take giant steps forward

My brothers and sisters, in the matter of fidelity, do not justify yourselves for your failings. Do you want to make progress and become faithful souls? Do not justify yourselves. People say, “I did that, but it is due to this and because of that...” It is always because of something or because of a fault committed by someone else: the fault of this Brother or that Sister, of our subalterns or our superiors, of events... in a word, it is the fault of anyone or anything, but not our fault. We are never guilty. When we always justify ourselves this way, there is no progress, and we accumulate infidelities. My brothers and sisters, if you want to grow in the love of God and be sanctified, do not justify yourselves for your infidelities, especially not in your words before your superiors, before your neighbor. I would say: do not even justify yourselves in your heart, because sooner or later, that is what will come out of your mouth. Humbly recognize your failings before God. Each time you become aware of your infidelity, redouble that increased awareness at once with a prayer: “Lord, I have been unfaithful again. I ask You to forgive me and I implore Your grace. Help me to amend. I beg of you, make me faithful.” Let us be faithful in practicing patience. Patience and meekness toward our neighbor, because that is a part of charity. My brothers and sisters, this year have this care, this application of being patient with your neighbor. Not a kind of patience that makes others feel that we are practicing patience with them, no! But gracious, true patience. May our neighbor not even feel that he might be annoying us and exercising our patience, may he not even suspect it. Patience also in all suffering, because when suffering is well accepted, it is redemption. Let us accept it as a Will of God. Be docile and faithful to God without complaint, in adversity, sickness and old age; let us not grumble because we are getting old and are in pain. No, may we faithfully bear the trials of life brought about by sickness, age, contradiction, physical and moral trials. There are all sorts of moral trials. Fidelity to obedience: that is the primary commitment we have contracted as religious. But obedience is not only for the religious; all Christians are obliged to it. Obedience to the Law of God, to evangelical teaching, fidelity in the accomplishment of our duty of state. All Christians should realize and understand that Jesus, our model, became obedient to repair our disobediences, which stem mainly from our pride, the root of all sin. Fidelity to prayer: prayer of adoration, of gratitude for benefits received, of supplication to implore the divine pardon and ask for the graces we need. This is one of our fundamental duties. Jesus says in the Gospel, Pray always and do not lose heart. 9 That is, pray not only from time to time, but be in the state of prayer as much as possible. To attain this, first you must avoid trivial pursuits. Fidelity, therefore, to keeping away from the thought of the world and everything that conveys the thought of the world and contaminates the soul, even unbeknown to it. Be faithful to keeping your distance with the World, that is, all that is not in conformity with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. God is faithful and He grants His grace, but if the soul voluntarily, out of negligence or indifference, feeds on poison — to different degrees — then obviously grace cannot act. I will draw a comparison. You have heard about GMO seeds, genetically modified organisms? For example, a seed of corn may look like the original corn, but if you break it down genetically, you will discover that there are all sorts of other elements in it. It is a blend. There are many modern Christians who are, so to speak, genetically modified. Their essence is contaminated because they are too unfaithful, because they love and frequent the World and are of one mind with its spirit, to different degrees. There is a kind of crossbreed in them. My brothers and sisters, let us be faithful and vigilant. Watch and pray, 10 says Jesus in the Gospel. That means vigilance and prayer. You commit an infidelity? It is the nature of humanity to be fragile, but we must get back up and quickly row against the current. There are those who become entrenched in infidelity, thereby cutting themselves off from the grace of God. If a person becomes too deeply entrenched in infidelity, if he is unfaithful in too sustained a manner, if he does not regret, does not take the means to rectify his conduct, and if he continually justifies himself for his infidelities, his “little sins,” then little by little, God leaves him to himself. Christianity is a religion of love, but it works both ways: God and the soul. If we neglect a little thing, then another and another, we reach the point of multiplying these infidelities and saying, “Oh, it’s not serious.” It is never serious, and we multiply the faults. Eventually, God is set aside and we are not even aware of it. We shun God, we shun His Law, we shun His teaching, we shun His grace. And thus we ourselves withdraw from the grace of God. That is serious!

What does the Gospel tell us?

One of the parables in the Holy Gospel shows us how God’s grace — symbolized by the seed — can bear much fruit, just a little or none at all, according to the condition of the ground that receives it. It is the parable of the sower: “Listen!” He said. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside. It was trodden underfoot, and the birds of the air came and ate it up. — Other seed fell upon rocky ground. It soon sprang up because there was no depth of earth; but when the sun rose, and because it had no roots to draw moisture, it was scorched and withered away. — And other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it; it yielded no fruit. — Finally, other seed fell upon good ground and yielded fruit that grew and developed, and the seed produced thirty, sixty and even a hundredfold... He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” The listeners — and even the Apostles, as we will see further on — did not understand. After the crowd had scattered, the Apostles came up to Jesus and questioned Him. “You do not understand this parable? Then how will you be able to understand all the others? Hear, therefore, what the parable of the Sower means: “The seed is the word of God. The Sower is the one who spreads that word. There are those in whom the word of the Kingdom falls by the wayside: these are the ones who hear it but do not understand it. Satan, the Evil One, soon rushes up and snatches away the word sown in their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved. There are others in whom the word falls on rocky ground: these are the ones who, having heard it, receive it at first with joy. But it does not take root in them: having inconstant natures, they believe only for a while. And when trial and persecution arise because of the word, they are scandalized and fall away. There are still others that are sown among thorns: these are the ones who have welcomed the word; but it is made fruitless by the cares and worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the pleasures of the world, and all the desires for other things, which choke the word with their deadly growth. “Finally, those that are sown upon good ground are those who hear the word with a right and good heart, understand it, hold fast to it, and make it bear fruit in all patience; these yield fruit, some thirty, some sixty, others a hundredfold.” 11 Jesus’ explanation is clear, and we could sum it up by saying that the good ground is the faithful soul. The earth by the wayside, the rocky ground and the soil full of thorns are unfaithful souls. As we see, most infidelities are committed by distraction, light-headedness, dissipation, lack of mortification, attachment to earthly goods, love of pleasures and honors; they come from pride and all the vices. What we call distraction often comes from curiosity, which causes great harm to souls: we want to know everything, we stick our nose everywhere, into all sorts of things that have nothing to do with our duty, into the conduct of our neighbor, into seeking news, etc. That is the earth by the wayside. The seed, that is, grace, is also fruitless in souls attached to their tastes and their whims, to the pleasures of the world and all its desires. That is the ground full of thorns. The seed is choked there. Finally, infidelities are often committed out of pride for fear of the judgment of others, of what they will think, for fear of the opposition, mockery and suffering that will come if we become truly faithful. We are afraid to have others say to us: “Oh look, he has become a saint! She has become a saint! What is happening to you? Have you gone into saint mode? But we heard you yesterday, and the day before yesterday... we know the litany of your failings!” We don’t enjoy to have our neighbor remind us of our failings, recalling and repeating them to others. So we practice a slightly diminished virtue, we remain slightly complicit as regards certain infidelities for fear of mockery or of mere commentaries by our neighbor. We do not want to compromise ourselves. That is the rocky ground. My brothers and sisters, this year I wish you to be real, to be faithful to the teaching of Jesus, His whole teaching, not adulterated. Be truly evangelical. And everything that is not truly evangelical in your life, acknowledge it ve-ry hum- bly. Let us be true. Everything in our life must be true — our motivation, our behavior, our words — so that we may be able to spread the true evangelical spirit all around us. Let us completely banish the mentality of saying or thinking, “Oh, the little things are not as important as all that!” The word of Jesus is infallible: Whoever is faithful in the little things will also be faithful in the great ones. It is strange: in the material realm, everyone understands the importance of little things, details. You plant a garden, for example. Suppose one year you notice that it is starting to have too many insects. What do you do? You don’t just cross your arms and say, “What do you want? That’s how it is. Too bad! It’s not serious!” If you do that, everything will soon be invaded and the harvest will be lost. Last summer in our field we noticed the apparition of potato bugs in great numbers. The Brothers got together at once and went to pick them by hand. That is a lot of work! Each one picked a more or less greater number. We did not get all of them, many escaped us, but we did what we could. The result? We had a fine harvest. The same logic applies in the spiritual realm. When we see anything that does harm to our soul, that displeases God, we must quickly apply ourselves to extirpating it. Otherwise it will just keep on growing. We do not say, “It doesn’t change much of anything, it doesn’t make that much difference.” No, making all our efforts and doing nothing is not the same thing. There is a big difference. If we ignore a shortcoming, an infidelity, it will multiply quickly. If we do not see to it, we lose everything. That is why I say to you: Do what you see needs to be done, and God will do the rest. God works miracles in the realm of grace, in the realm of souls, when He sees the good will and the efforts of His child. But it takes effort and correspondence to the grace and lights we have received. I would like to read you the Gospel parable of the five talents, to better insist on the importance of effort and correspondence to grace. “A man who was going abroad called his servants and entrusted his goods to them. To one he gave five talents; to the other, two; to a third, one; to each according to his particular ability. And then he left. The one who had received five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more. The one who had received two gained two more. But the one who had received only one went away and dug in the earth and buried his master’s money. After a long time, the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them. The one who had received five talents came first and gave him back five others, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me; here are five more that I have gained.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Since you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of your master.’ The one who had received two talents came next and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents; here are two others that I have gained.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. Since you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many. Enter into the joy of your master.’ The one who had received one talent came in his turn and said, ‘Master, I know that you are a demanding man: you reap where you have not sown, and gather where you have winnowed nothing. 12 That is why, filled with fear, I went away and hid your talent in the earth. Here is what belongs to you.’ But his master exclaimed, ‘Wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have winnowed nothing. You should therefore have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return, I would have gotten back what belongs to me with interest. So take that talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. For to everyone who possesses shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from the one who does not possess, even what he seems to have shall be taken from him. As for the unprofitable servant, cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 Jesus entrusts His goods to us: the example of His life, His teaching in the Gospel, His Church and His sacraments to which we can have recourse to be purified and strengthened. He gave us His Holy Mother, who became our Mother also on Calvary, always ready to help and assist us at the slightest call on our part. He gave each one of us human talents, supernatural graces, lights adapted to His designs for each one. We must make all of that bear fruit by the most faithful possible practice of the virtues of which He has given us the example: obedience, humility, charity, patience, meekness, mortification, chastity, the spirit of poverty. One day He will ask us what we have done with the gifts we received, ask us whether we have corresponded to the graces we received. God does not ask us anything we cannot do: He asks us to respond according to what He has given to each. By the parable of the five talents, He wants us to understand that even if what is asked for by Jesus in the Gospel seems to be above our strength — and in reality, it is — even then we must get down to the faithful practice of virtue, with the enthusiasm of little children full of confidence in their good Father, knowing that with God’s almighty grace, we can do all things! I can do all things in Him who strengthens me, 14 says Saint Paul. Unless you become like little children, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven, 15 says Our Lord. A little child does not analyze: he believes in his parents’ word. All things are possible to him who believes. 16 My brothers and sisters, we will have to teach these great truths to the world. God wants the world to live by them, starting with us. It is up to us to act, up to us to be faithful. Let us entreat God with humility to make us faithful and to accomplish Himself within us what He wants to see there. Let us entreat Him! Let us not go and bury or waste the graces He has given us! Let us turn to God: “Lord, I want to be faithful to You, I believe that You have the right to demand whatever You want from me. Give me the grace to do it.” We often hear people say: “I am not able, I am not made to be virtuous. I am not made to be patient, to be meek, to be humble; it is not in my character. I am not made to be charitable, to be mortified.” No one is made for that! Yet God is asking it of us. Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Do you think God is setting a trap for us? Do you think He would ask us for this if He did not also want to give us His grace, His support? No! All the Saints in history are a living witness that all things are possible with God’s grace. But for that to happen, the total adherence of our heart and mind to what God asks is necessary. “Yes, I want it, Lord, because You expect it from me. I beg of you, give me the grace to be faithful, otherwise I will fall. Do not leave me.” Our good Father John Gregory taught us this beautiful invocation: “My God, I want to do everything for You, but give me Your grace!” Dear brothers and sisters, at the start of this year, I will now give the apostolic blessing, asking God that in His Mercy, this year may be a kind of new beginning for each one of us, and for the entire Church. I ask God for an efficacious grace for all of you in the resolution to be entirely faithful to Him, and I pray Him to maintain you in this resolution, this determination. May the infidelities you may commit not be a pretext to throw in the towel and say, “There, it is wasted effort!” No, on the contrary. If one or even several infidelities should escape you, may you turn to God with profound humility each time and say once again to Him, “My God, I want to serve You, I want to be faithful to You; come to my assistance.” We must never give up or get discouraged. That would be the worst sin of all. Good courage! Happy and Holy New Year! Be faithful and you will be happy. When someone is faithful, God gives him joy. I am certain that each one of you has already experienced it. We have all been a little unfaithful at times, perhaps even more than a little. When you have been less faithful, didn’t you feel a sadness, a heaviness? You felt that you were not well with God. You were glum, uncomfortable, unwell. On the contrary, when you applied yourself to being faithful, even without success, wasn’t your soul gladdened over it? You felt the hand of God upon you. You felt something, a touch of God in your soul... Let us pray always for one another, encourage one another in fidelity. Time is short! May the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost descend upon you through Mary, Mother of God. Amen.