Is 'more' always better?

It wasn't much, he thought, as he picked up the bulky, old, never quite in tune 12 string guitar, the echoes of the piano concert from the basement still ringing in his and the rest of the student's ears. How can these 12 strings and a five-chord song compare to Bach and Beethoven and Stravinsky? But his friend had asked him to play for night prayers that night. How can it compare, he thought? With not even a mustard seed's worth of faith, he began playing, and soon, the whole chapel was singing with the voices of the angels themselves.

She was an ordinary woman. Nothing special about her. Except. Except she saw. She saw that there were things "that wanted doing" as her friend Peter Maurin would say of her. So, she started all kinds of activities: a newspaper, houses of hospitality, feeding programs, communal farms. Her name was Dorothy Day. And she became very popular. So much so, that many admirers came to see her, to look at her, to touch her, if possible. Sometimes, they would tell her that she was a saint. Or say to someone else within her earshot that she was a saint. That would do it. With a sharp turn of the head and voice she would respond: "Don't say that. Don't make it too easy for yourself. Don't escape this way. I know why you are saying, 'she is a saint.' You say it to convince yourself that you are different from me, that I am different from you. I am not a saint. I am like you. You could easily do what I do. You don't need any more than you have; get kicking, please." And just a mustard seed of faith was enough to propel her into action.

With just a mustard seed of faith, what could you and I do? That is the challenge of today's readings. We hear from Habakkuk that the vision still has its time, still presses on to its fulfillment. What will we do with the mustard seed that is in us? You see, Jesus tells the disciples that 'more is not better." To have just a mustard seed of faith - the smallest of all seeds - is enough to change the world. It was enough to make me pick up that guitar in the seminary chapel that night and be amazed at what God did with my willingness to serve. It was enough for Dorothy day to begin what became the Catholic Worker movement - still flourishing today.
A mustard seed is enough for those who are posting flyers and advocating a less violent way to respond to the terrorist attack - to hand Mr. bin Laden over to the international court instead of the united states courts. And with a mustard seed's faith, the international community is rushing aid to the refugees that cram the Pakistani and Afghanistan border.

It is easy to think that we don't have enough. We need to wait until we have more training, more faith, more education, more...whatever, before God will use us to do his will. Often the truth is closer to what Dorothy Day tells us - get cracking, there is work to be done. So, whether you have a mountain or a mustard seed worth of faith, let it move your heart to act this week.
Concretely:
* Adopt a firefighter to pray for this week.
* Choose to go to the twilight retreat on the mystery of suffering at the end of the month - Friday, Oct. 26
* Offer the olive branch to a member of the family, even if you have good reason to suspect that it won't be received - do it anyway.
* Act on a dream that you have for other people - be it to send a card, or to take someone out to dinner, or work with some poor families on Service Saturday - Oct. 20th...

For the vision does have it's time, and a mustard seed of faith is more than enough to bring about the kingdom...