June 30: Who's More Generous?

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Does the Christian duty to help the poor seem to be overwhelming? We hear more and more are out of work, more and more are homeless, and we see more and more pictures of starving children. Even in St. Paul’s time there was more than enough poverty to go around. He was trying to build interest (in our second reading) in a project to help the Christians in Jerusalem. We see two of his reasons here.

First he tells what fine Christians they are, and hopes that they will be just as good in giving to his collection. (Reminds me of letters from the bishop, telling parishioners how good and generous they have been in the past.) But Paul isn’t just flattering the Corinthians; he is challenging them to continue to show their love for God in their support for fellow Christians. The second reason was to show a good example: By helping the church in Jerusalem, they would show that Christians were united in faith and love for each other. He also doesn’t make a competition out of who could be most generous. He expects them to be more interested in love for each other than in outdoing each other.

The main example he uses is Jesus, who made himself poor (i.e., human) so that we could be rich in grace and forgiveness. Paul challenges them, and us, to follow that example in giving from our wealth so that others can survive. Note that he doesn’t expect them to live in poverty, just to share what they have out of love for Christ. Perhaps they may need help themselves sometime, and could count on the other church to do the same for them.

Today, we can ask ourselves, “Do I give to the poor because I feel guilty about all that I have? Or do I want to show my love for Jesus when I see him in the poor? Do I give because I want the parish to look more generous than the neighboring parish, or to show that we are all united in concern for each other?” By looking at why we give to charities, we may find ourselves being even more generous than we expected.

Tom Schmidt