It is the little things that make a work perfect and, therefore, worthy of being offered to the Lord. It is not enough for what is done to be good (work, prayer…); it must also be a well-finished work. For virtue to exist—Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches—it is necessary to attend to two things: what is done and the way it is done. And as for the way of doing it, the chisel stroke, the brushstroke, the final touch transforms that work into a masterpiece. On the contrary, shoddy, clumsy, and defective work is a sign of spiritual languor and lukewarmness in the Christian, who must sanctify himself through his daily work: I know your works, and that you have a name that you are alive, and you are dead (…). For I do not find your works perfect in the sight of my God. Care for little things is demanded by the very nature of the Christian vocation: to imitate Jesus in the years at Nazareth, those long years of work, of family life, and of friendly relations with the people of His town. Putting love into small things for God requires attention, sacrifice, and generosity. A small, isolated detail may not seem important: "What is small, is small; but he who is faithful in little things, he is great."
It is love that makes the small things important. If this love were lacking, the interest in caring for little things would make no sense: they would turn into an obsession or Pharisaism; tithes of mint, dill, and cumin would be paid—as the Pharisees did—and one would run the risk of abandoning the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy. Although what we can offer may seem like a small thing to us—like the alms of this poor widow—it acquires great value if we place it upon the altar and unite it to the offering that the Lord Jesus makes of Himself to the Father. Then, "our humble offering—insignificant in itself, like the oil of the widow of Zarephath or the poor widow's mite—becomes acceptable in the eyes of God through its union with the oblation of Jesus." At other times, details, whether in work, in study, or in relationships with others, are the crowning touch of something good that without that detail would remain incomplete.
One of the clearest symptoms that the path of lukewarmness is beginning is that little value is placed on the details in the life of piety, the details in work, and the small and concrete acts of the virtues; and one ends up neglecting the big things as well. "The misfortune is all the more disastrous and incurable when, in sliding toward the depths, it is scarcely noticed, and occurs with greater slowness (…). That a mortal blow is dealt to the life of the spirit by this state is manifest to all." Love for God, on the contrary, is highlighted in resourcefulness, in vibrancy, and in the effort to find in everything an occasion for love of God and service to others.
HCD