“You are to be yeast within the great multitudes”

You are to be yeast within the great multitudes that make up humanity remember we are interested in all souls. In this way, with God's grace and your own correspondence to it, you will act as leaven throughout the world, adding quality, flavour and volume to the bread of Christ so that it can nourish the souls of others. (The Forge, 973)

A great multitude had followed Jesus. Our Lord looked up and said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread for these to eat?’ Philip made a rapid calculation and answered: ‘Two hundred silver pieces would not buy enough bread for them, even to give each a little.’ They didn’t have that kind of money; what they could find was paltry in comparison. ‘One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him: There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fishes; but what is that among so many?’

We want to follow Our Lord. We are anxious to spread his Word. From a human point of view, it’s only natural that we should ask ourselves: who are we, for so many people? Compared with the total population of the world, even though there are millions of us, we are few in number. We must therefore see ourselves as a tiny measure of yeast, prepared and ready to do good to the whole of mankind, remembering the words of the Apostle: ‘a little leaven is enough to leaven all the dough’, transforming it completely. We have to learn to become that yeast, that leaven, and so modify and transform the multitude.

If we pray and meditate on these words of St Paul, we will realise that we have no alternative but to work, in the service of all souls. Anything else would be selfishness. If we look at ourselves humbly, we will see clearly that, in addition to his gift of faith, Our Lord has also granted us a number of talents and qualities. None of us has been mass‑produced. Our Father has created us one by one and shared out different goods among his children. It is up to us to use these talents, these qualities, in the service of all men. We are called to use the gifts God has given us as instruments to help others discover Christ. (Friends of God, 256-258)

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