How to Fix the World

5 November 2005: Feast of all Saints and Blessed in the Society of Jesus
Luke 16, 9-15: Incremental Steps towards the Salvation of All Souls

We reflect on the 10th verse of the Gospel: “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”

This can mean two things: The best proof that a person is worthy of a higher area of responsibility is when he has been responsible for small things. We can know whether a person is fit or unfit for a certain leadership position through his accomplishments with smaller tasks. No one therefore should advance to a higher office unless he has proven his worth in minor jobs.

Or it can hit right at the core: highly-driven individuals dream of making a great difference in the world. They make it their business to fix the problems of the world. Health and fitness programs teach us that the way towards a great physique is to begin with incremental steps. I have a story:

One day when a father came home, he sat down to relax and read the paper. His son had other ideas. The playful boy continually pestered his father. The frustrated father tired of his son’s nagging and took a page of the paper with a picture of the world and tore it into pieces. “Son, go into the other room and put the world back together. Moments later the boy returned. He had taped the world back together. The surprised father asked, “How did you do that so quickly?” “It was easy,” said the boy. “You see, on the other side of the world was a picture of a man, and as soon as I got the man straightened out, the world was OK too!”

Perhaps this is the better point. Perhaps the way to fix our broken world, a world that has been shattered into millions of pieces, is to put the broken man back together first.