(Fifth Sunday of Easter (B): This homily was given on April 27, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R. I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Acts 9: 26-31.)

"The importance of ‘little things’."

What do St. Paul, Pope John Paul II, Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Dale O’Leary have in common--aside from their common faith in Jesus Christ? The answer is: Each of them was powerfully influenced by another person who knew the importance of ‘little things.’

I will explain.

First: St. Paul. Today’s first reading is taken from Acts, chapter 9, beginning in verse 26. There it says, "When Saul arrived back in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples there; but it turned out they were all afraid of him. They even refused to believe that he was a disciple." Now I’m sure that Saul was doing his very best to smile and be friendly, but can you really blame these early Christians? I certainly can’t. After all, they knew this man’s history. They knew it all too well! They knew that he had been an accomplice in the murder of St. Stephen. They knew that he had been one of the major players in a mass persecution of Christians in Jerusalem.

"And now he says he’s changed? We don’t think so!"

To present a parallel situation in our own day: I suppose it would be like Saddam Hussein making a public statement tomorrow--a statement in which he proclaimed himself a loyal friend of the United States. How many of us would believe him? Probably very few. Well, what Saddam Hussein has been to the people of the United States in recent years, Saul was to those early Christians of Jerusalem.

Enter Barnabas. In verse 27 it says, "Then Barnabas took [Saul] in charge and introduced him to the apostles. He explained to them how on his journey Saul had seen the Lord, who had conversed with him, and how Saul had been speaking out fearlessly in the name of Jesus at Damascus." My brothers and sisters, objectively speaking, what Barnabas did for the future St. Paul was a fairly ‘small thing’: he merely introduced him to a few people and told them a few stories. Period. But how important this ‘little thing’ was! Because without Barnabas’ efforts, the early Christians might never have come to trust Saul. And what a disastrous effect that would have had on the spread of Christianity! What a disastrous effect that would have had on the New Testament--remember, St. Paul wrote almost half of it himself!

Barnabas knew the importance of little things.

So did Jan Tyranowski. Jan Tyranowski was a tailor who lived in Poland during the Second World War. He was also a deeply committed Catholic who knew the importance of sharing his faith with others. And so he began a study group with some young people in his town. They would read the great spiritual classics by people like John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila after which they’d come together for some discussion. Well one night, Jan Tyranowski spotted a young man in church--someone he had seen there on a number of occasions. He went over to him and invited him to join the study group. That was it--he did a ‘little thing’--he extended an invitation. The boy said, "Yes." Well, that "yes" proved to be a turning point in his young life. Through his study of these great spiritual writers, the young man eventually discerned God’s call to be a priest. Now that young man is a bishop: the Bishop of Rome, Pope John Paul II.

Some of you heard my Easter homily in which I spoke of Dr. Bernard Nathanson. Dr. Nathanson was an abortionist and one of the founders of NARAL (The National Abortion Rights Action League). He claims to have been personally responsible for about 75,000 abortions. Back in the late 1970’s he became ‘pro-life;’ interestingly enough while he was still an atheist! On purely scientific grounds he came to the realization that human life begins at conception. During the 1980’s he did some marvelous work to battle abortion, especially through his two films, The Silent Scream and Eclipse of Reason. But through it all, he had no inner peace (which is not surprising, since he had the guilt of 75,000 abortions hanging over his head); and toward the end of that decade he seriously thought of killing himself. Can you imagine the devastating effect that would have had on the pro-life movement?! The pro-abortion press would have run that story for months! Enter Fr. John McCloskey. Like Barnabas and Jan Tyranowski, Fr. McCloskey did a ‘little thing’: he heard that Nathanson was having some problems, so he contacted him. We call people all the time, right? No big deal. Well, through that simple act, a friendship began--a friendship through which Fr. McCloskey helped Nathanson find the peace he was seeking. He found it where everyone should find it: in the Church. Last December, Dr. Nathanson was baptized into the Catholic Church at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, and there he received complete forgiveness for all his sins.

And finally, Dale O’Leary. Dale O’Leary is a free-lance writer, whose columns very often appear on the Providence Journal’s religion page. In one of her recent articles, she wrote this about her conversion:

I did not come to faith through an intellectual process. Nor did a personal crisis cause me to call out for help from the heavens. Faith came at a peaceful time when, as a happy wife and new mother, I met someone who really believed that Christ was present in the Blessed Sacrament. . . . I accompanied my friend to Mass; and as we kneeled at the moment of consecration, I asked a simple question: ‘God, if it is really true that You are present in this bread upon this altar, let me know and I will become a Catholic.’"

Well, thankfully, God gave her the grace she was seeking, and she eventually entered the Church. But what really strikes me about Dale’s testimony is the fact that her conversion was rooted in a seemingly ‘little thing’: her friend’s conduct at Mass. That apparently small thing made a big difference. Some of us may think that the way we conduct ourselves at Mass really isn’t that important: "What difference does it make if I’m chronically late, or leave after communion, or never open my mouth to participate in the Liturgy?" Thanks be to God Dale O’Leary’s friend thought differently. As Dale put it, her friend "really believed that Christ was present in the Blessed Sacrament;" and her conduct at Mass witnessed to that belief.

I’m sure it’s clear by now--this homily is about the importance of "little things." I focus on this issue today, because we live in a world where we’re often taught that for something to be important, it’s got to be BIG: a big executive job, a big house, a big car, a big bank account, a big accomplishment that makes page one of the newspaper. And so we can easily be tempted to neglect those ‘little good things’ that God wants us to do--and needs us to do.

I’ll give you one example of what I mean. Last weekend, at all the Masses here at St. Pius, we asked people to take ten minutes of their time to make some phone calls. The reason? Bills to ban partial birth abortion are coming up for consideration here in our state legislature and in the U.S. Senate, and we need people to make their voices heard in defense of life. This is a procedure in which babies are murdered--babies who are three quarters out of the womb! By any other name, that’s infanticide! So we asked that registered voters call Senators Reed and Chaffee (and our local representatives) to ask them to support these bans on partial birth abortions, with no amendments. Now I won’t take a poll today, but I wonder--how many people actually did it? You see, from one perspective, making those phone calls is just a "little thing." It doesn’t seem very earth shattering or even very significant. But little things like this do matter. In fact, if every Catholic in this state had called Reed and Chaffee, their phones in Washington would have rung about 600,000 times in the last seven days. And I guarantee you, those 600,000 ‘little things’ would have made one very, very BIG impression--the kind of impression that needs to be made on some of our spineless politicians!

St. Barnabas, today we want to thank you. Yes, I know, all you did was introduce Saul to the apostles and put in a few good words for him. But in the process you taught us something. You taught us that some of the biggest and greatest works of God begin with ‘little acts’ of faith and love. St. Barnabas, pray for us, that we will all put this important lesson into practice. Amen.