Reading I Responsorial Psalm GospelPosted on 08/10/2002 10:26:02 AM PDT by Salvation
Reading I Responsorial Psalm GospelReading I
2 Cor 9:6-10
Brothers and sisters:
Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.
Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you,
so that in all things, always having all you need,
you may have an abundance for every good work.
As it is written:
He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.
The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food
will supply and multiply your seed
and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 112:1-2, 5-6, 7-8, 9
R (5) Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
Blessed the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commands.
His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
the upright generation shall be blessed.
R Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
Well for the man who is gracious and lends,
who conducts his affairs with justice;
He shall never be moved;
the just one shall be in everlasting remembrance.
R Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
An evil report he shall not fear;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steadfast; he shall not fear
till he looks down upon his foes.
R Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
Lavishly he gives to the poor,
his generosity shall endure forever;
his horn shall be exalted in glory.
R Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
Gospel
Jn 12:24-26
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me."
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Saturday, August 10, 2002
Meditation
2 Corinthians 9:6-10
St. Lawrence
God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7)
St. Lawrence, a deacon of the church of Rome, was entrusted with the dual responsibility of caring for the poor and looking after the church’s possessions. During a wave of persecution in 258 A.D., Cornelius, the Roman prefect, ordered Lawrence to surrender the church’s wealth to the emperor. On the appointed day, Lawrence proudly presented to Cornelius a large gathering of widows, orphans, along with people who were blind and lame—all of whom were being supported by the donations from Christians. “These are the treasure of the church,” he said. Enraged, the prefect had Lawrence bound to a gridiron and slowly burned to death. But far from intimidating the church, as Cornelius had hoped, Lawrence’s martyrdom encouraged many others to embrace Jesus and practice Christian charity.
St. Paul reminds us that we cannot outmatch God in generosity. “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Genuine love doesn’t calculate but gives freely. When God gives, he gives an abundance of his undying love, overflowing grace, and unlimited mercy.
St. Augustine once said that God is always trying to give us good things, but our hands are too full to receive them. Our hearts are often held captive by the things we cherish. By clinging to them, we leave little room for God’s grace. A generous spirit not only frees us to give ungrudgingly; it makes us receptive to the One who can satisfy the deepest desires of our heart.
When we give freely and generously to those who are poor or disabled or neglected, we imitate Jesus, who loved us and gave his very life for our sake. St. Augustine also said: “Love has hands to help others. It has feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of other people.” Let’s ask the Lord to make us more attentive to these needs, and to become cheerful givers, just as he is.
“Lord, may your love inspire men and women everywhere to give generously to the poor and needy throughout the world. Fill me, Lord, with your generosity.”
What prompts me to be a cheerful giver? To be an unhappy giver?
Blessings To Be Expected
Commentary:
6-15. The collection appeal ends with some remarks about the benefits that accrue from it. First, St Paul says that the generous almsgiving of the Corinthians will stand to them in this life and in the next (vv. 6-10), and then he refers to its effects on the faithful in Jerusalem: they will praise God and feel closer to the Christians of Corinth (vv. 11-15).
A person who is generous in almsgiving draws down on himself the blessings of God. St Augustine says: "Your Lord says this to you, [...] Give to me and receive. In due course I will give back what is due to you. What will I give back? You gave little to me, you will receive a great deal; you gave me earthly things, I will give back heavenly things; you gave me temporal things you will receive eternal things; you gave me what was mine, you will receive me, myself [...].'
See whom you lent to. He nourishes (others) and (yet he himself) suffers hunger for your sake; he gives and is needy. When he gives, you wish to receive; when he is needy, you are unwilling to give. Christ is needy when a poor man is needy. He who is disposed to give eternal life to all his own has deigned to receive temporal things in (the person of) anyone who is needy' ("Sermon 33", 8).
6. This image of sowing and reaping is often used in Sacred Scripture to indicate the connection between one's actions and reward or punishment in the next life (cf. Prov 22:8; Mt 25:24-26; Gal 6:7f). What the Apostle says here reminds us of our Lord's promise: "Give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap" (Lk 6:38). However much we give God in this life, he will reward us with much more in the next.
7. "God loves a cheerful giver": a teaching often found in Scripture (cf. Deut 15:10; Ps 100:2; Sir 35:11; Rom 12:8). An alms or a service done reluctantly can never please anyone, particularly God our Lord: "If you give bread and it makes you sad to do so," St Augustine comments, "you lose both the bread and the reward" (St Augustine, "Enarrationes in Psalmos", 42, 8); whereas the Lord is delighted when a person gives something or gives himself lovingly and spontaneously, not as if he were doing a great favor (cf. "Friends of God", 140).
8-10. St Paul emphasizes the abundant divine blessings--both temporal and spiritual--which generous almsgiving brings. In the Old Testament we read in the Book of Tobias: "Give alms from your possessions to all who live uprightly, and do not let your eye begrudge the gift when you make it. Do not turn your face away from any poor man, and the face of God will not be turned away from you. If you have many possessions, make your gift from them in proportion; if few, do not be afraid to give according to the little you have. So you will be laying up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity. For charity delivers from death and keeps you from entering the darkness; and for all who practice it charity is an excellent offering in the presence of Most High" (4:7-11). To almsgiving can be applied our Lord's promises about the hundred-fold in this life and then everlasting life--promises made to all those who give up something in his name (cf. Mt 19:28f).
"Righteousness" is equivalent to holiness. In the Bible the person is described as righteous or "just" who strives to do God's will and serve him to the best of his ability (cf., e.g., notes on Mt 1:19; 5:6).
10. "For," comments St John Chrysostom, "if even to those who sow the earth and to those who are concerned about the needs of the body, God gives in great abundance, much more will he give to those who till the soil of heaven and apply themselves to the salvation of their souls, for he wills that we should spare no sacrifice in that regard [...].
"This holy apostle gives these two principles: in temporal things one should limit oneself to what is necessary; but in spiritual things one should seek as much as possible. Therefore he asks that we should not simply give alms, but give alms generously. That is why he calls alms 'seed'. Just as corn cast into the ground produces a crop, so generous alms produces righteousness and abundant harvest" ("Hom. on 2 Cor", 20).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Jesus Foretells His Glorification (continued)
Commentary:
24-25. There is an apparent paradox here between Christ's humiliation and his glorification. Thus, "it was appropriate that the loftiness of his glorification should be preceded by the lowliness of his passion" (St Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 51, 8).
This is the same idea we find in St Paul, when he says that Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross, and that therefore God the Father exalted him above all created things (cf. Phil 2:8-9). This is a lesson and an encouragement to the Christian, who should see every type of suffering and contradiction as a sharing in Christ's cross, which redeems us and exalts us. To be supernaturally effective, a person has to die to himself, forgetting his comfort and shedding his selfishness. "If the grain of wheat does not die, it remains unfruitful. Don't you want to be a grain of wheat, to die through mortification, and to yield a rich harvest? May Jesus bless your wheatfield!" ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "The Way", 199).
26. Our Lord has spoken about his sacrifice being a condition of his entering into glory. And what holds good for the Master also applies to his disciples (cf. Mt 10:24; Lk 6:40). Jesus wants each of us to be of service to him. It is a mystery of God's plan that he--who is all, who has all and who needs nothing and nobody--should choose to need our help to ensure that his teaching and the salvation wrought by him reaches all men.
"To follow Christ: that is the secret. We must accompany him so closely that we come to live with him, like the first Twelve did; so closely, that we become identified with him. Soon we will be able to say, provided we have not put obstacles in the way of grace, that we have put on, have clothed ourselves with our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 13:14). [...]
"I have distinguished as it were four stages in our effort to identify ourselves with Christ--seeking him,
finding him,
getting to know him,
loving him.
It may seem clear to you that you are only at the first stage. Seek him then, hungrily; seek him within yourselves with all your strength. If you act with determination, I am ready to guarantee that you have already found him, and have begun to get to know him and to love him, and to hold your conversation in heaven (cf. Phil 3:20)" ([Blessed] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 299-300).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.
| St. Lawrence martyr |
 Feastday: August 10 |
Saint Lawrence was one of seven deacons who were in charge of giving help to the poor and the needy. When a persecution broke out, Pope St. Sixtus was condemned to death. As he was led to execution, Lawrence followed him weeping, "Father, where are you going without your deacon?" he said. "I am not leaving you, my son," answered the Pope. "in three days you will follow me." Full of joy, Lawrence gave to the poor the rest of the money he had on hand and even sold expensive vessels to have more to give away.
The Prefect of Rome, a greedy pagan, thought the Church had a great fortune hidden away. So he ordered Lawrence to bring the Church's treasure to him. The Saint said he would, in three days. Then he went through the city and gathered together all the poor and sick people supported by the Church. When he showed them to the Prefect, he said: "This is the Church's treasure!"
In great anger, the Prefect condemned Lawrence to a slow, cruel death. The Saint was tied on top of an iron grill over a slow fire that roasted his flesh little by little, but Lawrence was burning with so much love of God that he almost did not feel the flames. In fact, God gave him so much strength and joy that he even joked. "Turn me over," he said to the judge. "I'm done on this side!" And just before he died, he said, "It's cooked enough now." Then he prayed that the city of Rome might be converted to Jesus and that the Catholic Faith might spread all over the world. After that, he went to receive the martyr's reward. Saint Lawrence's feast day is August 10th.
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