July 26, 2026

You know how colds and flus can spread when the kids are in school? Your child comes home with a fever and cough. Your friend who was visiting takes it to their house. Their child spreads it at church, all before you knew they were sick. Next thing you know it’s a major outbreak. 

The same principle applies to grassroots resistance. An act of kindness, an expression of solidarity, speaking out to advocate for justice, showing up at the food bank to help – all of these signs of love and compassion can spread from person to person and household to household. Quietly, acts of kindness and solidarity can spread throughout society like an epidemic of hope and love.  This is one of God’s ways of spiritual resistance against corruption and cruelty, and it is a powerful one. 

It is like one dropperful of dye can spread out and color a whole bucket of water. In the same way, Jesus talks about one spoonful of salt can flavor the whole soup. This is how kindness not only spreads its influence but eventually can permeate the whole of society.

This is the “kingdom of God,” the reign of love and kindness on earth. Jesus also said it’s like a small amount of yeast which can multiply and make a whole batch of bread rise. In those days, bread was leavened with sourdough. In sourdough baking, the baker saves a small amount of dough from the previous batch and uses it to leaven the new dough. The small lump of sourdough starter spreads through the whole bowl of dough within hours. This is the influence we can have on society through our positive actions. It is something we can do, it’s a place we can start when we don’t know what else to do to fight oppression and injustice, when it just seems overwhelming.

In his Angelus address on July 19, 2026, Pope Leo taught that God’s kingdom grows quietly through love, not force. It is like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a huge plant, or like a small lump of yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough. God’s kingdom can grow even in the midst of evil, often appearing in the ordinary moments of daily life. Pope at Angelus: God’s Kingdom grows quietly through love, not force – Vatican News.

Let us have hope in the grassroots contagion of kindness spreading spiritual resistance against cruelty, consumerism, misuse of the earth for short-term gain, and oppression of the poor for profit. That is all. Amen.