32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B) - 10 November
10th November 2024
“It is God’s way to give much for little. Our Lord does not attend to how much we give, but to the generosity of our will, and for this very reason He makes much of a little.” - St John Chrysostom
A reflection on today's Gospel reading by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"Many people are fond of using the words ‘greatest’, ‘biggest’, and ‘super’, all of which indicate the tendency of mind to bow down before the statue of the Colossus, or before anything that is colossal. Grant the value of grossness and magnificence, may it still not be true that character resides in trifles and in the little things? Our Blessed Lord said that a drink of cold water given in His Name would not be without its reward. It will be noted that here the value does not reside precisely in what is small or little, but rather the motive for which it is given, or used. Beggars use tin cups; churches use plush-bottom collection baskets. The reason the beggar uses a tin cup is because he does not attribute a spiritual motive to the giver. He knows that the one who drops a sixpence loves to hear the jingle of his generosity. In the church, however, where gifts are offered out of love for the Lord, there is no echo that comes back.
"Not the drink of water alone has merit, but the giving of it in the Divine Name, or with a spiritual intention. If we were to put on a scale, or a balance, what men regarded as the noblest gift which self-love could make, and on the other side of the balance, the most insignificant act or gift done out of love for Christ, we would find that the latter would far outweigh the former.
"The difference between philanthropy and charity resides in this: Philanthropy is a gift without the love of God; Charity is the gift with the love of God. Both the billionaire and the beggar can write cheques for a hundred million dollars, but the former alone has value because of his name and the security that backs it up. Let then two equal gifts be given – one signed with one’s own name, the other signed in the Name of Christ, and the latter has a worth that pierces Heaven. God does not weigh on the same scale as man. It was the widow in the Temple who gave the two smallest of coins, and yet gave all she had, who was noticed by the Saviour.
"Love has nothing to do with usefulness. There would be no love if a person kept a list of index cards on which were noted the so-called friends who might be helpful to him. Neither does love cultivate a friend because ‘he can get it for me wholesale’; love does not cherish another person because of the pleasure that person gives; love does not give money in great abundance to a political party in order to become a foreign ambassador; love does not give gifts to prostitute. Love, in a word, has nothing to do with calculation.
"One day when Our Blessed Lord was at dinner in the little village of Bethany, just a short time before His Passion and death, a woman stole into the dining room and broke a vessel of precious ointment, pouring it over His feet. Judas, who was present at the dinner, immediately asked: ‘Why all this waste? It might have been sold.’ On the part of the penitent woman who loved, there was no calculation of cost; on the part of the disciple who had lost his faith, there was the reckoning of profit.
"Love never needs any justification. The offerings of love are never wasted. Flowers are sent to the bedridden when something perhaps more useful might have been sent. But the flowers are the offerings of love and as such are accepted. The value of a gift is not in what was paid for it, but the sacrifice and devotion of the giver. That is why we tear off price tags when we give gifts, in order to prove that there is no correspondence between the gift of the lover and the love of the giver. But is it not true that love is more often stronger when it descends than when it ascends? Mothers love children more than children love parents. And God loves us more than we love Him. We measure out our love to Him drop by drop; He breaks the alabaster vase of His Body and gives His all for our redemption."
(The Power of Love)
Prayer for Generosity (St Ignatius of Loyola)
Lord, teach me to be generous, to serve You as You deserve to be served, to give without counting the cost, to fight without fear of being wounded, to work without seeking rest, and to spend myself without expecting any reward, but the knowledge that I am doing Your holy will. Amen. 💐🙏💖