God loves a cheerful Giver
"God loves a cheerful giver."
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Let me start with a true story which appeared in a Guidepost magazine.
A new boy at a school was segregated from the other children and often alone. He wore hand-me-down clothes. His clothes had a "vintage" look before the "vintage look" was in style. One day the teacher announced that she wanted the children to bring money to school the next day to help needy people in the community. The next day the teacher asked the children who had brought some money. Only that one young lad put his hand. He moved decisively up to the front and put in her hand a nickel (a coin worth five cents). He quietly told her that he guessed he could go without lunch that day. The teacher took her class's donation to the principal's office. She was embarrassed at only having a nickel to show for her efforts. But when she told the principal of her meager (unsatisfactory) results, the principal was amazed. He showed her the list of the most needy families in the area requesting help. The name at the top of the list was the family of that boy who had made the sole contribution.
Dear brothers and sisters, the irony of that story is the same irony as in the story of the widow's mite. The stories of widow in our readings are really challenging.
We measure the greatness of actions by their external appearance and impression. Christ tells us here that he looks into our heart, and he reads our dispositions. This is very encouraging. If all we have the opportunity of giving him is a small act of kindness and not an earth-shattering gesture, he still measures it by the love in our heart as we give it. We sometimes think we have very little to offer him, but we can always give him our whole heart.
It is not a matter of having many things to give, but to be generous with what we have. If we are generous in small things we will be generous in the big, when the opportunity comes to give them.
There is a famous funny story about a little Swiss church at the turn of the 20th century. The roof of the hall of this little church was falling down, so the members of the church decided to hold regular prayer meetings in the hall after the service to pray for funds to repair the roof. Now there was an old man known to be very tight with his money who used to attend the prayer meeting. He would always sit near the back of the hall so that he could sneak out just before the collection plate came round at the end of the meeting. One Sunday, he was held up on his way to the prayer meeting, and could only find a seat at the front of the hall. During the meeting a piece of the roof fell and hit him on the head. Feeling spoken to by God, he stood up and said, "Lord, I'll give two thousand dollars." A voice at the back of the church was heard to say, "Hit him again, Lord!"
This is our way but Jesus sees things differently. Jesus pays special attention to the poor widow whose clothes were unspectacular and who probably was overlooked by almost everyone. Oh yes, many rich people put in huge sums. But Jesus commended the woman who put in a penny. Why? It wasn't tossed in with great finesse but placed in with great humility. Because the others did it for show out of abundance; she did it for God with "all she had to live on." Others made a contribution. But the widow made a sacrifice. Two cents was all she had. It wasn't all she had in her purse at the time; it was all she had, two cents and a vault full of faith.
But when we see the collections in the Catholic Church all over the world, we may wonder are we giving tips to God. We may give more money as a tip at the restaurants than what we give in the church. And we have no problem. A minister challenged himself and his congregation one Sunday morning. When the ushers had taken up the offering one Sunday and brought the plates down to the altar, he took the plates and held them up in the air. Then he prayed: "Dear God, regardless of what we say about you with our lips, this is really what we say about you, this is really what we feel about you. This is really what you mean to us. Amen." (Raoul Comninos: The Widow's Offering: Four Principles of Tithing, Dec 2000). No more beating around the bush. This prayer hits the nail on the head: our giving doesn't just matter - it is an expression of our love for God.
Jesus turned a two-cent gift into a headline because of the sacrifice the gift represented. It's not the size of the clang that matters most. It's the sacrifice that involved in the giving. Our gifts are not measured by how much we give, but by how much we keep for ourselves. Our giving must cost us.
When we look into the day-to-day life of the Catholic Church, The majority of us, I believe, recognize the difference between a mean spirited person and the one who is generous in his or her attitudes. It is a difference which shows itself in those who live "on" society and those who live "for" society; it is the difference that shows itself in those who consistently take more from living than they put into it. President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address in 1961, put it well when he challenged the country "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". And I add to that sentence do it what you can do for the Church.
It is above all one's intention that counts. It is on this intention that we will be judged. It is the intention of the widow that Jesus glorified in the eyes of his disciples: What can God do with our gold and silver? It is our heart which God wants for himself! Even if we have nothing, neither gold nor silver, there is still one thing that we can give to God, the only thing which has value in his eyes: our love! My dear brothers and sisters, Jesus asks us to examine our values. To what do we cling? The scribes clung to power and their own resources. The poor widow had little, but she trusted in God to give her what she needed. God asked Abraham to leave the country and everything he had and go to the Promised Land .When he had a son in his old age God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac was the only son he had. But he was ready to give everything to God and put trust in him. It is the time to examine ourselves about where our choices are and whether we’re choosing God in our choices.
What Jesus said of the scribes may be true to us. There is no pretence or hiding before God. We may cover up the kind of people we are, but that could only be in the sight of people. He sees into our hearts, and he spoke of us as white sepulchers, white and bright on the outside, but full of rotten bones within.
"God loves a cheerful giver." "The amount which you measure in your giving to others will be the measure of how you yourself will receive."
The bottom line is: “Do what you do to please God rather than to please others. Whatever we do, let it be from the heart.” God loves a cheerful giver.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
Let me start with a true story which appeared in a Guidepost magazine.
A new boy at a school was segregated from the other children and often alone. He wore hand-me-down clothes. His clothes had a "vintage" look before the "vintage look" was in style. One day the teacher announced that she wanted the children to bring money to school the next day to help needy people in the community. The next day the teacher asked the children who had brought some money. Only that one young lad put his hand. He moved decisively up to the front and put in her hand a nickel (a coin worth five cents). He quietly told her that he guessed he could go without lunch that day. The teacher took her class's donation to the principal's office. She was embarrassed at only having a nickel to show for her efforts. But when she told the principal of her meager (unsatisfactory) results, the principal was amazed. He showed her the list of the most needy families in the area requesting help. The name at the top of the list was the family of that boy who had made the sole contribution.
Dear brothers and sisters, the irony of that story is the same irony as in the story of the widow's mite. The stories of widow in our readings are really challenging.
We measure the greatness of actions by their external appearance and impression. Christ tells us here that he looks into our heart, and he reads our dispositions. This is very encouraging. If all we have the opportunity of giving him is a small act of kindness and not an earth-shattering gesture, he still measures it by the love in our heart as we give it. We sometimes think we have very little to offer him, but we can always give him our whole heart.
It is not a matter of having many things to give, but to be generous with what we have. If we are generous in small things we will be generous in the big, when the opportunity comes to give them.
There is a famous funny story about a little Swiss church at the turn of the 20th century. The roof of the hall of this little church was falling down, so the members of the church decided to hold regular prayer meetings in the hall after the service to pray for funds to repair the roof. Now there was an old man known to be very tight with his money who used to attend the prayer meeting. He would always sit near the back of the hall so that he could sneak out just before the collection plate came round at the end of the meeting. One Sunday, he was held up on his way to the prayer meeting, and could only find a seat at the front of the hall. During the meeting a piece of the roof fell and hit him on the head. Feeling spoken to by God, he stood up and said, "Lord, I'll give two thousand dollars." A voice at the back of the church was heard to say, "Hit him again, Lord!"
This is our way but Jesus sees things differently. Jesus pays special attention to the poor widow whose clothes were unspectacular and who probably was overlooked by almost everyone. Oh yes, many rich people put in huge sums. But Jesus commended the woman who put in a penny. Why? It wasn't tossed in with great finesse but placed in with great humility. Because the others did it for show out of abundance; she did it for God with "all she had to live on." Others made a contribution. But the widow made a sacrifice. Two cents was all she had. It wasn't all she had in her purse at the time; it was all she had, two cents and a vault full of faith.
But when we see the collections in the Catholic Church all over the world, we may wonder are we giving tips to God. We may give more money as a tip at the restaurants than what we give in the church. And we have no problem. A minister challenged himself and his congregation one Sunday morning. When the ushers had taken up the offering one Sunday and brought the plates down to the altar, he took the plates and held them up in the air. Then he prayed: "Dear God, regardless of what we say about you with our lips, this is really what we say about you, this is really what we feel about you. This is really what you mean to us. Amen." (Raoul Comninos: The Widow's Offering: Four Principles of Tithing, Dec 2000). No more beating around the bush. This prayer hits the nail on the head: our giving doesn't just matter - it is an expression of our love for God.
Jesus turned a two-cent gift into a headline because of the sacrifice the gift represented. It's not the size of the clang that matters most. It's the sacrifice that involved in the giving. Our gifts are not measured by how much we give, but by how much we keep for ourselves. Our giving must cost us.
When we look into the day-to-day life of the Catholic Church, The majority of us, I believe, recognize the difference between a mean spirited person and the one who is generous in his or her attitudes. It is a difference which shows itself in those who live "on" society and those who live "for" society; it is the difference that shows itself in those who consistently take more from living than they put into it. President John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address in 1961, put it well when he challenged the country "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". And I add to that sentence do it what you can do for the Church.
It is above all one's intention that counts. It is on this intention that we will be judged. It is the intention of the widow that Jesus glorified in the eyes of his disciples: What can God do with our gold and silver? It is our heart which God wants for himself! Even if we have nothing, neither gold nor silver, there is still one thing that we can give to God, the only thing which has value in his eyes: our love! My dear brothers and sisters, Jesus asks us to examine our values. To what do we cling? The scribes clung to power and their own resources. The poor widow had little, but she trusted in God to give her what she needed. God asked Abraham to leave the country and everything he had and go to the Promised Land .When he had a son in his old age God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac was the only son he had. But he was ready to give everything to God and put trust in him. It is the time to examine ourselves about where our choices are and whether we’re choosing God in our choices.
What Jesus said of the scribes may be true to us. There is no pretence or hiding before God. We may cover up the kind of people we are, but that could only be in the sight of people. He sees into our hearts, and he spoke of us as white sepulchers, white and bright on the outside, but full of rotten bones within.
"God loves a cheerful giver." "The amount which you measure in your giving to others will be the measure of how you yourself will receive."
The bottom line is: “Do what you do to please God rather than to please others. Whatever we do, let it be from the heart.” God loves a cheerful giver.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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