The Memorial of Saint Clare
But you, son of man, hear what I tell you. Don't be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth, and eat that which I give you."
When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. He spread it before me. It was written within and without; and lamentations, mourning, and woe were written in it.
He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel."
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.
He said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your belly and your bowels with it."
Then I ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
He said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.
I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, As much as in all riches.
Indeed your statutes are my delight, And my counselors. DALETH
The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YODH
How sweet are your promises to my taste, More than honey to my mouth!
I have taken your testimonies as a heritage forever, For they are the joy of my heart.
I opened my mouth wide and panted, For I longed for your commandments.
In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?"
Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in the middle of them and said, "Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me,
See that you don't despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
"What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, doesn't he leave the ninety-nine, go to the mountains, and seek that which has gone astray? If he finds it, most certainly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
We celebrate today Saint Clare of Assisi, the 13th-century founder of the Poor Clares, who gave up a life of wealth and nobility to follow Francis of Assisi into radical poverty and contemplative prayer — a woman whose smallness before God became her greatest strength.
Notice how these readings circle around the same surprising idea: that receiving something fully, taking it deep into ourselves, is what makes us capable of giving it away. Ezekiel doesn't just hear God's word — he eats it. He takes it into his body. And what he expects to be bitter, given that the scroll is covered in lamentations and woe, turns out to be sweet as honey. The word of God transforms in the receiving.
Clare understood this. She didn't preach in the streets or lead armies. She prayed. She fasted. She received. And somehow, from that smallness, an entire movement of women grew — women who still live this way today, in monasteries around the world, eating the scroll quietly, day after day.
The Gospel presses us further. Jesus places a child in the middle of his disciples — not a symbol, an actual small person — and says, *this* is what greatness looks like. Not accomplishment. Not influence. Smallness. Availability. The willingness to be placed somewhere and simply be present.
On an ordinary Tuesday or Wednesday, this is harder than it sounds. We're shaped by a culture that measures worth by output. But the shepherd in the parable doesn't calculate the odds — he just goes. He goes because the one lost sheep matters completely.
What becomes clear is that God's attention is not divided equally among the ninety-nine. It rushes toward whoever is missing.
Consider today: what word have you been hearing but not yet swallowed? Where in your life are you calculating worth instead of simply going? And what might it look like, just for today, to be a little smaller?