Heart to Heart Chat
† Heart to Heart Chat – March 16, 2025
My dear friends,
I always thought that minimalism in everything is quite
wrong such as loving minimally, following rules in the
minimal way and doing things in our faith life just the
required ones. After reading a blog recently, I have
come to understand minimalism in an entirely different
way. The new generation of people who are so intense
in pursuing a life of success that could lead them to a life of power,
prestige, honor and wealth, never rest in their lives. It looks like that
they are obsessed with optimal living that they are constantly looking
for new experiences that would bring them the maximum pleasure
out of whatever they do. As a result, they choose to live a life with
unlimited freedom without being committed to any concrete ideals of
life except benefits to their personal fulfillment.
When Thomas Merton was approached by a group of Christian stu-
dents who asked him this question: “Why he wastes his talents sitting
in a cell in rural Kentucky when he could be out giving talks and
making a much bigger impact on the world?” Merton’s simple an-
swer was that “I believe in prayer. It is my vocation.” His conviction
was that there is nothing more important than prayer in his life. Many
are ambitious to achieve something extraordinary in their lives. But a
magnanimous person on the contrary focuses on what God has called
her/him to do. She/he does not care about how small or great the task
entrusted to her/him by God. All that she/he cares about is that how
much this task given to me by God increases my capacity for self-
forgetting love. How much this act of love can make me the real per-
son Christ wants me to be. We are called to live the fullness of life
that is given to us in and through Christ (John 10:10). This fullness of
life starts from committing myself to the little things I am called to
do for my family, for my children, for my parish community, for my
employer. Life is not all about ambitiously pursuing so many things
rather being committed to this little task that brings great joy to many
around me. Mother Teresa did that every day of her life and thus
showed us the path of transforming lives through simple acts with
great love. Every parent does this to their children. Strangers do great
acts of love and help to total strangers. Without knowing the faces of
people, many are feeding their brothers and sisters in faraway coun-
tries just because they want to feed the hungry. Let this Lent offer us
a way to see what it means to find fullness of life through little acts
of love.
Your brother in Christ,
Fr. Xavier Ilango