25th Sunday in Ordinary Time – C
September 21, 2025 5pm
Our Lady of Grace Parish, Parkton
The Weight of a Snowflake
There’s a story that once upon a time, a field mouse asked a wise old owl: “What is the weight of a snowflake?”
The owl answered: “Nothing! Nothing at all!” After hearing that, the field mouse went on to tell the owl about the time he was resting on the branch of a fir tree.
It was snowing and he was counting each snowflake, until the number was exactly 3,471,952 snowflakes. Then, with the landing of the very next flake – c-r-a-c-k!
The branch of the fir tree snapped, and the mouse tumbled to the ground. The mouse looked at the wise old owl and said: “So! What is the weight of a snowflake?”
Little Things Have Effects
That anecdote highlights an important lesson in today’s gospel.
Jesus says that if we are responsible about little things, then we will also become responsible about bigger things. His point is that everything we do has significance.
Sometimes we think that some of our actions are not all that important – that they count for nothing, like a snowflake that seems to weigh nothing. But the truth is that everything we do has an effect.
Today I want to look at one application of this. The words we speak!
Our Words Are Important
Our words are important.
They can seem unimportant – like just one more snowflake. But they have weight and they matter.
They can build up others and our relationships with others. They can also tear down and crack – like a snowflake cracking the branch of a tree, our words can crack a relationship, a community, a country.
Often enough today we hear words that demonize and portray others as all bad. They end up producing hatred and division.
Often enough we hear words that stereotype whole groups of people. They end up producing hatred and discrimination – my gosh, can’t we recall what this did to the Jewish people for centuries and especially in the 1930s?
Often enough we hear violent words, violent words that set the stage for violent actions. Archbishop Lori begins his recent statement on this: “The slaying of two Minnesota legislators. Killing innocent children gathered for a school Mass in Minneapolis. The slaying of Charlie Kirk. The list goes on and is endless and depressing. We ask: Will it ever end?”
So, we’ve got to get hold of this. I want to propose four positive rules for our use of words.
I don’t pretend that they are the entire answer, but they are something that you and I can do. They are something we are called to do by our faith in Jesus Christ.
Four Rules for Words
Rule 1. Be respectful. Use words that are respecting and not belittling. Respect others as persons, as human beings. Never, never belittle or demonize others and make them appear as all bad. Be respectful.
Rule 2. Be unitive. Use words that are unitive and not divisive. Emphasize the things that you share in common with others and that unite us. Don’t divide yourself from others as if there can never be any common ground between you. Be unitive.
Rule 3. Be reconciling. Use words that are reconciling and not distancing. Speak in a way that at least leaves the door open for reconciling. Don’t distance yourself from others by holding yourself as absolutely right and them as absolutely wrong. Be reconciling.
Rule 4. Be persuasive. Use words that are persuasive and not coercive. Treat others as reasonable persons and try to respectfully persuade them about whatever the issue is. Talk about the issue and don’t attack the person. Be persuasive.
Conclusion
So, little things, like one snowflake, are important.
Our words may seem little, but they are not. They are big and they matter.
A well-known American Jewish rabbi, Rabbit Abraham Joshua Heschel made a brief, insightful comment about this. He wrote:
“Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.”
Fr. Michael Schleupner
