THEY’RE GREAT THOUGH THEY DON’T KNOW IT
Their name never appears in the paper. No one opens any door for them. They don’t have titles or enviable expense accounts, but they’re great. They don’t have a lot of money, but they have something that can’t be compared to money: goodness, ability to welcome, tenderness and compassion to those in need.
Men and women who are nothing special, people close by those whom no one much values, but who go passing through life putting love and kindness all around them. Simple and good persons who only know how to go about giving a hand and doing good.
People who don’t know pride or have grand pretensions. Men and women who are there at the right moment, when you need a word of encouragement, a friendly look, a ready hand.
Simple and good fathers who take time to listen to their small children, answer their endless questions, enjoy their games and discover again next to them the best of life.
Tireless mothers who fill the home with warmth and joy. Women who are beyond price, since they know how to give their children what they most need to confidently face their future.
Couples who go on maturing in their love day by day, learning to give in, generously taking care of the other’s happiness, mutually forgiving each other in the thousand small frictions of life.
These unknown people are the ones who make the world more habitable and life more human. They place a pure and breathable air in our society. Of them Jesus has said that they are great because they live to serve the rest.
They themselves don’t know it, but thanks to their lives the oldest and most genuine energy walks in our streets and houses: the energy of love. In the desert of this world, sometime so inhospitable, where there only seem to grow rivalries and conflicts, they are a small oasis in which spring forth friendship, trust and mutual help. They don’t get lost in discourses and theories. Theirs is to love silently and offer help to whoever needs it.
It’s possible that no one ever appreciates them very much. Great speeches probably aren’t made about them. But these men and women are great because they’re human. There’s their greatness. They are the best followers of Jesus, since they go about making the world more dignified, as he did. Without knowing it, they are opening up paths to God’s reign.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
