No More Than A Snowflake
It was said that he was “a boy, a youth, a prophet, a shepherd and a tender of the Spirit.” You probably don’t remember that quote, but perhaps you’ll remember the person about who it was said – Mattie Stephanek.
Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stephanek, who was nicknamed “Mattie” was a Catholic who advocated for peace, for people with disabilities and for children with life-threatening conditions. That in itself would be a tremendous accomplishment for any individual, but Mattie also suffered from a rare form of muscular dystrophy, was confined to a wheelchair, and required artificial respiration through a tracheotomy every day of his life.
Mattie also wrote six books of poetry and one book of essays, all of them New York Times bestsellers. He also lobbied on Capitol Hill, he received numerous awards, and was seen on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on other nationally televised programs – and he accomplished all that before his fourteenth birthday.
Mattie died a month before his birthday on June 22, 2004 and thousands of people of all religious denominations attended his funeral at Saint Catherine Laboure in Wheaton. People afterward said, “Mattie gave us a great example of embracing the cross,” and “Mattie gave us a great example of what it means to be a believer.” That, more than anything else, constitutes Mattie’s legacy, and all from a crippled boy who was not yet 14 – all from a boy who in the great scheme of things, weighed no more than a snowflake.
“Tell me the weight of a snowflake,” a coal-mouse asked a wild dove. “Nothing more than nothing,” was the answer. “In that case I must tell you a story,” the coal-mouse said. “I sat on the branch of a fir tree, close to its trunk when it began to snow heavily, without a sound and without any violence. I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the 3,741,953rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more than nothing you say, the branch broke.” The dove thought about the story for a few moments and finally said, “Well, perhaps then there is only one person’s voice lacking before peace will come into the world.”
The question then begs itself, sisters and brothers – whose voice is lacking? Who is not giving an example of embracing the cross? Who is failing to give an example of what it means to be a believer? Who? There must be someone because if every Christian were adding their voices then the world would be a very different place.
Mattie weighed no more than a snowflake in the great scheme of things, because he was an ordinary boy, but when he added his voice to the mix, hearts began to warm, consciences were enlightened and people started to become more godly – all because one boy, someone who in the great scheme of things in the world, weighed no more than a snowflake.
Witnessing to our faith isn’t about doing something “extraordinary” – it’s all about doing something “ordinary.” Witnessing to the gospel should be, for all us believers, something we do as routinely as eating, and should be, for all us believers, as natural as breathing. It’s our vocation, after all, to preach the good news to all the world.
Remember this – Jesus sent ordinary people, just like ourselves, out on mission. We hear it today in the gospel, “At that time the Lord appointed seventy-two others whom he sent ahead of him in pairs to every town and place he intended to visit.” That one sentence says much more than we’re probably hearing – for one, those seventy-two aren’t named, which means they’re not major players in the great scheme of things – they’re like snowflakes that weigh nothing more than nothing from a worldly point-of-view. Yet, they’re sent out anyway, just as they are, with the expectation that they’ll do the ordinary thing Jesus told them to do – to go out and tell other people about god.
Do you suppose any of those seventy-two thought themselves ill-equipped or unprepared to act as Jesus’ personal representatives? They probably did, after all they’re just like us and just like the people in last weekend’s gospel – people who’d rather say “I will follow you” without actually doing it.
The problem is that we all have the tendency to stand around and do very little witnessing for Jesus. We tend to want to be in his company and avoid being his representatives. It’s as Saint Paul teaches in one of his letters – we tend to be hearers of the Word instead of doers of it.
We may all be getting a little tired of hearing this same message week-after-week. After all, we’ve been hearing about this for a month now. Yet, perhaps God is sending us this same message, over-and-over, to get it through our thick heads. Perhaps God is trying to get us to take our responsibility for helping to change the world with the gospel seriously. Maybe that’s why He is saying this repeatedly; perhaps because we all have a tendency to sit down and do little when it comes to this. We do lots of charitable things, but this isn’t about charity, this is about mission.
Jesus treats this as an ordinary expectation for all believers. We who weigh no more than a snowflake in the great scheme of things, are expected to get out into the world and start sharing the good news. We must add our efforts to that of the Church, just like Mattie Stephanek. We must use whatever God has given us, during the time He gives us, to help persuade the world to the truth of the Gospel.
Jesus is very clear, sisters and brothers, that there are no free rides in the Church and there are no acceptable excuses.