Cardinal Tobin: God favors smallness
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Vol. 8 No. 1
Then the Lord said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord; the Lord will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord —but the Lord was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the Lord was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the Lord was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound (1 Kings 19:11–13).
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
In the Old Testament’s First Book of Kings (19:11–13), we read that God manifested Himself to the prophet Elijah not in a mighty wind, an earthquake, or a roaring fire, but in “a light silent sound” or, in some translations, “a still small voice.” We are told that God whispers to us gently. He does not shout.
God often communicates with us through quiet, personal revelation rather than dramatic or overwhelming events, requiring believers to be attentive to hear Him. So, if we want to hear His voice—to encounter the living God—we ourselves must be quiet and attentive to what is being shared with us in the silence of our hearts.
The parables of Jesus often contain gentle whispers that reveal to us the mind of God. As Pope Leo XIV told us in his Angelus message for Sunday, July 19 (see selection below), God favors smallness. He doesn’t reveal Himself through spectacular signs or mighty deeds. His presence is more subtle.
The parables of Jesus show us that God’s ways are not our ways. Contrary to our ordinary expectations, God favors mercy over vengeance. He says that there is more rejoicing in heaven over the recovery of one lost soul than the 99 who remained faithful. And we are led to believe that God is like an employer who generously compensates those who have worked only one hour at the same rate as those who have labored all day long.
We are tempted to cry out: “God’s ways are unfair!” We do not want to love our enemies or forgive those who have harmed us. We don’t want to deny ourselves or carry our crosses. And we would welcome some overt signs that God is truly with us, and is prepared to overcome all obstacles to our living easy, comfortable lives. We do not favor smallness. We prefer the larger-than-life promises of the Antichrist, who speaks deceptively in grandiose ways (see selection from Cardinal Ratzinger’s address below).
Pope Leo tells us that “Jesus warns us against the temptation to think that God is a powerful figure who imposes himself by force, who takes over and dominates, or who arrives triumphantly.” Instead, the Holy Father says, “God favors smallness, a sign of his discreet love, by which he leaves us free to accept or reject him.”
This is the key to understanding the mind of God: Our Triune God loves us so much that He refuses to control or manipulate us. He wants us to be completely free. That’s why He communicates with us in light, silent sounds. It’s why He never imposes Himself on us but instead proposes His way of living and loving through parables and sayings that whisper to us (never shouting) what constitutes true happiness (beatitude). It is how God shows us that self-sacrificing, unselfish love is the only way to experience lasting joy.
Pope Leo reminds us that the Kingdom of God “grows invisibly like yeast in flour, and so we are freed from discouragement and invited to have faith even when it seems that God is absent.” In fact, the Holy Father stresses that God “is always with us, and His love is always ready to help us.”
We shouldn’t be misled by God’s smallness into thinking He is insignificant in our world. The miracles of healing and forgiveness that Jesus performed were clear signs of the power He shares with His Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit. His resurrection from the dead was the greatest possible sign of God’s power over the forces of sin and death. What’s more, the Church’s growth and vitality despite 2000 years of external persecution and internal turmoil is itself a dramatic indication that God’s grace, although invisible, is stronger than any worldly power.
God may favor smallness, but the truth, goodness, and beauty that flow from His creative love have no equal in power or majesty. “God’s way of acting must also become the way in which we live, both as individuals and as the Church,” Pope Leo admonishes us. We must learn to favor humility over arrogance, forgiveness over revenge, and nonviolence over aggression. We must be meek and gentle persons who conform our lives to the model of Jesus Christ. And we must be women and men who listen attentively to the Word of God, the teaching of our Church, and the voices of our sisters and brothers—who often say things that we would prefer not to hear—to be receptive to the “light silent sounds” that reveal to us the presence of our loving God.
May Mary, Mother of the Church, show us how to listen prayerfully to the still small voice of God. May her positive response to God’s Word be a model for us as we grow in love and service to God and to all our sisters and brothers in Christ.
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.,
Archbishop of Newark
Reflections On the New Evangelization
An old proverb says: “Success is not one of the names of God.” The new evangelization must surrender to the mystery of the grain of mustard seed and not be so pretentious as to believe it will immediately produce a large tree. We either live too much in the security of the already existing large tree or in impatience for a greater, more vital tree.
Instead, we must accept the mystery that the Church is at the same time a large tree and a very small seed. In the history of salvation, it is always Good Friday and Easter Sunday at the same time.
The correct method derives from the structure of the new evangelization. We must use the modern methods of making ourselves heard in a reasonable way, or better yet, of making the voice of the Lord accessible and comprehensible.
We do not want to listen to ourselves; we do not want to increase the power and influence of our institutions; we wish to serve the good of the people and humanity by giving room to the Lord who is Life. This “expropriation” of one’s person, this offering of one’s self to Christ for the salvation of men, is the fundamental condition of the true commitment for the Gospel. “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive,” says the Lord (John 5:43). The mark of the Antichrist is the fact that he speaks in his own name. The sign of the Son is his communion with the Father.
The Son introduces us into the Trinitarian communion, into the circle of eternal love, whose persons are “pure relations,” the pure act of giving oneself and of welcome. The Trinitarian plan — visible in the Son, who does not speak in his own name — shows the form of life of the true evangelizer. Evangelizing is not merely a way of speaking, but the way we live — living in the listening and giving to the Father’s voice. “He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak,” says the Lord about the Holy Spirit (John 16:13). This Christological and pneumatological form of evangelization is also, at the same time, an ecclesiological form: The Lord and the Spirit build the Church, communicate through the Church. The proclamation of Christ, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God presupposes listening to his voice in the voice of the Church. “Not speak on his own authority” means: to speak in the mission of the Church…
(A selection from an address by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, on December 10, 2000, given in Rome on “The New Evangelization ” to participants in the Jubilee for Catechists, © 2001 Robert Moynihan).
A Message from Pope Leo XIV: In the One Christ, We are One
Dear brothers and sisters, happy Sunday!
Following the parable of the sower, Jesus continues to address the crowds using a series of images: the good wheat and the weeds, the mustard seed and the yeast in the dough (cf. Mt 13:24–43).
These three short parables recall the coming of the Kingdom of God in history, its action in human lives, and the way it grows, expands and transforms the world from within. Through these images, Jesus warns us against the temptation of thinking that God is a powerful figure who imposes himself by force, who takes over and dominates, or who arrives triumphantly. Instead, God favors smallness, a sign of his discreet love, by which he leaves us free to accept or reject him. His love makes its presence felt even among the weeds, acts in a hidden and invisible way like the smallest of all seeds, and leavens the dough without making a sound.
Brothers and sisters, through these parables, Jesus reveals something important about the manner in which God works in our lives and in history. We sometimes expect God to do something spectacular; we want him to intervene from on high, immediately uprooting the weeds of evil. We imagine a strong and powerful God, and, unfortunately, we also model our way of being Christians and way of being the Church on this image. However, the Kingdom of God spreads even amidst the weeds, requiring us to train our vision so we can discern the good that sprouts despite the darkness of evil, and avoiding rash judgments. It comes like the smallest of seeds and thus calls for patience in accompanying these processes, so that we can recognize it in the little things of daily life and in the simplicity of ordinary existence. It grows invisibly like yeast in flour, and so we are freed from discouragement and invited to have faith even when it seems that God is absent. In fact, he is always with us, and his love is always ready to help us.
God’s way of acting must also become the way in which we live, both as individuals and as the Church, amidst the reality that surrounds us. We are called to adopt a Gospel-centered approach, without hastily opposing others through arrogant judgments, without imposing ourselves through power and force, and without losing trust in God’s work. As the then-Cardinal Ratzinger said, it is a matter of submitting ourselves to the logic of the seed — which is not that of success and greatness, but that of making ourselves small and serving others (cf. Address to Catechists and Religion Teachers, 10 December 2000). In this way, we will become like small seeds of the Gospel that sprout, and leavens of love that transform the dough of the world.
Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, who knew how to welcome the seed of the Word in her smallness, to sustain us on our journey and intercede for us.
(Angelus Message, Piazza della Libertà (Castel Gandolfo), Sunday, July 19, 2026)
My Prayer for You
Please join me in praying these ancient words (Sub tuum praesidium):
We seek refuge under your protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our pleas – we who are put to the test – and deliver us from every danger, O glorious and blessed Virgin.
Amen.