Generosity

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

There was a kid in Manila one time who used to sell cigarettes at a street corner. He was very young, and he didn't know how to manage his money.

There was a parish church run by the Salesian Fathers nearby, Don Bosco Church, so he gave his money to one of the priests there to manage for him.

Every day he would come and he would bring his 20 shillings or whatever he got from selling his cigarettes, and later in the day he would come and ask for 10 shillings to buy some rice.

One day he came and asked for 60 shillings, and that was about everything that he had saved up.

So the priest was a bit surprised, and asked him, why did he want 60 shillings? Normally he asks for much less.

And he said, ‘You see there's a lady who's given birth to a baby under the bridge, and she has no milk for the baby, and milk costs 60 shillings a can. And so I thought I would buy some milk for the baby.’

The priest was very moved. Here was this guy who had nothing in this world, an eight-year-old kid, an orphan, who had a pair of slippers, a pair of shorts, and a T-shirt.

He managed just to save up what for him was a small fortune, but then at the first sight of someone in need, he was willing to spend all of that.

The priest made his homily the following Sunday at all the Masses out of this story, and there was a rich lady in the congregation, and she offered to pay for this kid's education.

How happy God must be when He sees a soul like that shining up at Him, totally detached from everything, completely generous.

This meditation is about generosity, a very beautiful virtue, something that Our Lord talks a lot about in Scripture, which He admires in a special way. He loves a cheerful, generous heart (cf. 2 Cor. 9:7).

“There was a rich man who used to clothe himself in purple and fine linen and who feasted every day in splendid fashion. And there was a poor man, a certain poor man named Lazarus, who lay at his gate covered with sores, and longing to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores” (Luke 16:19-21).

Scripture is full of comparisons, sometimes very graphic comparisons.

When we read this story, we tend usually to think in terms of material things, the rich man had so many things, clothed himself in purple and fine linen, feasted every day in splendid fashion. And then you have this tremendous contrast in Lazarus, full of sores, and the dogs. It's the epitome of misery. He has nothing.

But if we look at this parable in relation to spiritual things, a rich man full of spiritual things, and Lazarus maybe nothing spiritual, it can have a lot more meaning for us, because God has given us many spiritual things: all our formation, our education, our interior life, ideas, spiritual reading, so many things in the course of our life that He's filled us with.

We're spiritual millionaires. It sort of puts the onus on us then to think about how we can spread that wealth around the place, because we truly have tremendous spiritual wealth.

The reality is that there may be many “Lazari” at our gate who have nothing, and yet we have so many things.

There's a phrase in the Old Testament, I think it's the Psalms, that says, Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quae retribuit mihi? “What shall I give back to God for all that he has given to me?” (Ps. 115:3).

It's not a bad phrase to repeat occasionally. And it comes in the form of a question that challenges us. What shall I give? What shall I give back to God for all that He has given to me?

When we look at the course of our life, we see so many things that God has given to us that He hasn't given to other people.

“Those to whom much has been given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48).

Again, we don't have to think of the material things, but the spiritual things, and also, all the other talents, our sight, our hearing, our limbs. So many things that God has given to us.

It moves us to continually ask, What can I give back to God? What can I contribute?

Peter Drucker in The Effective Executive talks a lot about how to be more effective. He says the key to being more effective is to ask the right question, which is: What can I contribute?

In this committee meeting, in this class, in this profession, in this get-together, in this family gathering, with this particular soul that's here in front of me, or these friends that are connections or acquaintances that are around me—what can I contribute?

It's a good question to ask in relation to our generosity with all the spiritual things that God has given to us.

At each stage of our life, we have greater opportunities to be more generous, because God has given us more things: more abilities, more ideas, more acumen, more experience.

It may be that our generosity will come with an idea, an idea that can change the lives of many people, or even one person—something that we share, or something that we have derived from years of professional work, or so many other things.

God wants our generosity, and particularly, our generosity in corresponding to the graces that He's given to us. Because He's given us so many things, He's given us also graces to outdo ourselves in all sorts of ways, in situations, and with people that he's placed around us.

“He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury. Many of the rich put in a great deal. A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny” (Mark 12:41-42).

We know that Our Lord was so happy with that generous heart; moved Him so completely.

Because we may have little to give, it doesn't mean that God doesn't want us to give. He still wants us to give, and to give with our whole heart, with a great spirit.

We can't hide behind the fact that ‘I don't seem to have five talents’ or, ‘I may have three or only one’ (Matt. 25:14-23).

We all have something to give, and God wants us to give it in a very generous way.

“Sell your possessions,” we're told in St. Luke, “and give to those in need. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you in heaven, where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. For wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be too” (Luke 12:33-34).

Our Lord talks a lot about treasures in Scripture: a man who found “the pearl of great price” …he “found a treasure” (Matt. 13:44-46). Something that was really worth having. Something that gave him great joy and pride.

One of the treasures that God has placed in our treasury is the ability to give, to know what generosity means, and hopefully to teach that to other people, with our words and with our example.

Something very beautiful, it moves the heart. When you see somebody who really knows how to be generous, it's quite something. This person is serious. It's like a statement of authenticity. They're really trying to be holy; they're really living the virtues.

The danger is that our treasure could be in other things.

I was called one night to a patient in a private hospital beside where we worked. That patient was going to die that night.

He was a man in his 50s. He had cancer. Normally we weren't called over there; it was the domain of the consultants.

But that night I was on duty and got called over. When I went into the room, the family was there, and he asked them to leave.

Then he took hold of my wrist. His hand was already cold and clammy. He was going to die that night, and with a look of terror in his eyes, he said, “Doctor, don't let me die.”

Suddenly, what came into my mind was a phrase of Scripture about our treasure being in this world: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where dust and moths consume, and thieves break in and steal” (Matt. 6:19).

This man was at the hour of his death and he was realizing that all his treasures were in this world. He was well-to-do and he was in the best hospital in the country.

But it was as though he had no treasures built up for himself in heaven.

We have to try and use our time well, in order to be generous with what we have.

What can I do, what can I contribute, how can I do more, how can I give more?

At each stage of our life, there may be ways in which God wants us to give in different ways with different people in the places around us; or perhaps, with some new initiative or a new idea, passing on experiences or information or a whole pile of other things.

But we know that He wants us to give, and to give generously, with whatever He has given to us.

“Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and then come, follow me” (Matt. 19:21). It's an astonishing challenge.

But it's that astonishing challenge that Our Lord places in front of all of us. Go and detach yourself and give, and give in all sorts of ways, and give in ways that you perhaps never imagined.

From having that correspondence to the graces that God gives us, then hopefully, we can demand that same generosity from others. They too might be willing to correspond in superlative ways that God is asking of them.

“I urge you then, brothers,” says St. Paul, “remembering the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God. That is the kind of worship for you, a sensible people” (Rom. 12:1).

There may be times when we have to be generous in offering little aches and pains, or contradictions, or challenges, or changes of plans, or all sorts of other things that may come our way; jobs that are asked of us, or assignments, things given to us by our boss.

Possibly, things that we don't particularly like; we'd much prefer to be doing something else at this particular moment.

Or some other emergency comes up and we’re needed some place; we have to drop what we are doing.

All the little sacrifices that God may ask of us, and He wants us to try and see the loving hand of Our Father God in all those things, so that we generously give back to God our time, our energy, our plans.

“He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. And he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat” (Luke 5:3).

We know that initially, like with Simon, Our Lord asked for a little. Not too many complications. Little things here and there.

But then there came another moment when Our Lord asked for everything: out into the deep water. That's where He wants you, with the wind blowing in your face, because that's where the big fish are (Luke 5:4-6).

Big things. He wants you to risk everything, even though you don't know how to swim.

Our Lord gives a lot, but He asks a lot.

There was a monk once who was walking along the street and he saw a beggar. He put a jewel into the cap of the beggar.

The first reaction of the beggar was to think, This must be a fake. Nobody would give me a jewel.

But he said, I can go and get it valued. I might get the price of a meal out of it.

He went along and he had it valued in some pawn shop someplace, but he found it was worth $50,000.

He walked around in a dream for a few hours and days, thinking of all the wonderful things he was going to do with that $50,000. He'd never be hungry again, he could have a roof over his head, he could have fine clothes.

Now when he came back to earth, he began to wonder, Why did the monk give me this jewel? He must have known that it was worth something. This began to bother him.

Then he came to the conclusion that “if the monk gave me this jewel, it was because he has something more valuable than the jewel.” This began to bother him a little more.

He began to realize, “If the monk has something more valuable than the jewel, that's something that's really worth having, because that's of greater value than the jewel.”

He decided to go and look for the monk and find him, and eventually, he did. He said to him, “Look, I realize you have something more valuable than the jewel. You have that thing that made you give it to me. I tell you what, I will give you back the jewel if you will give it to me, that thing that made you give it to me.”

Of course, he was talking about the virtue of generosity, a wonderful treasure to build up and grow in.

We've all given something in our life. We’ve tried to give ourselves completely. But God wants us to maintain and foster that generosity.

It's not just a once-in-a-lifetime thing; something, like all the virtues, that has to grow.

“It's worth the effort to give ourselves totally,” said St. Josemaría, “to correspond to the love and confidence that God has given us” (Josemaría Escrivá, Christ Is Passing By, Point 129).

Our Lord gave Himself totally for us on the Cross, in the Blessed Eucharist, in all sorts of ways. He invites us to be generous with our time, with our energy, with our efforts, with our charity, with material things; but also with our understanding, with our patience, with our apostolate.

How can I break new ground? How can I meet new people? How can I have a greater influence? How can I be in touch with the neuralgic people in society and leave a mark and a legacy there, or spend more time with them?

It's a virtue of great souls who find their reward in the act of giving. A generous person knows how to give without demanding.

Giving enlarges the heart and helps us become a greater person, a greater soul. It leads us to forget the little irritations of daily life and know how to smile.

We're told in The Forge, “Lord, may your children be like red-hot coals, but without flames to be seen from afar. Let them be burning embers that will set alight each heart they come into contact with. —You will make that first spark turn into a burning fire because your Angels are very skilled at blowing on embers in hearts...I know, I have seen it. And a heart cleared of dead ashes cannot but be yours” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 9).

We have to look again at all the gifts that God has given to us. There's a phrase in Scripture that says, si scires donum Dei–“if you knew the gift of God…” (John 4:10).

With divine grace, we perhaps come to see with greater clarity, with the course of time, the magnitude of the gifts that God has given to us, the graces that He hasn't given to so many other people, and therefore, the divine calls that God has given to us to respond to those graces.

He's waiting for, and He wants, our generous effort. He's asked us to “put out a little from the shore” (Luke 5:3), and then later on, He asks us for everything: an abandonment without limits.

To live with God means to run risks. Our Lord is not happy sharing.

And love has some clear expressions. It's founded on sacrifice, manifested in external works. Charity has to be demonstrative, has to be seen, concrete deeds.

That's where Our Lord wants our generous correspondence: in concrete things.

We're told to go closer to Him, to be ready for a new conversion, a new rectification, to listen more closely to His inspirations, those holy desires which He brings out in our souls, and to put them into practice.

Every few months and every few years, the Holy Spirit whispers in our soul, in our heart, through the channels that are given to us, maybe outlining new horizons, new great targets, new wonderful ideals.

Ultimately that ideal is the ideal to follow Christ, to imitate Him, to identify ourselves with Him. “I do not live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

Heroic sanctity is the demand of the calling we've received. “Leaving all things, they followed him (Luke 5:11). Relictis omnibus.

It's worth everything.

It's worth everything, and to demand that same everything from people around us, asking great things so that all the plans of God can be fulfilled, giving Our Lord everything, not just in the budget, but in cash; in concrete ways, in every moment, each of the moments of our life.

It's not compatible with criticizing, or complaining, or carping, or loving ourselves in all sorts of ways.

Sometimes, the thing that God may ask from us is our comfort, our complacency, aspects of our egoism, and our selfishness.

To win a war, we're told, it's sufficient normally to win the last battle. But in the interior life, we must be trying to win all of them.

Woe to him who is not trying to win all, because it might happen that one of those last battles might be the last, and so the soul might lose the war.

What's the most important thing of all? Persevere up to the end. Save yourself.

St. Paul says, “Let each one carry the burdens of the other” (Gal. 6:2)—generous in looking out for other people, in that grace of charity that Our Lord has given to us, with a new beginning in that area, finding new ways to reach out to others.

Be daring. You have the help of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, Our Mother, who, without stopping to act as a mother, knows how to place her children in front of their responsibilities.

Mary does the great favor of bringing to the Cross those who go close to her and contemplate her life. She puts before them the example of the Son of God.

Our Lady takes us by the hand and places us in front of our responsibilities. Greater responsibility has to lead us to that more generous correspondence to grace; to maintain, but also to strengthen that generosity, not just to maintain it and diminish it.

Every so often, the Church places in front of us for our contemplation new examples of the generosity of Christ. The generosity of the Child in the manger. The generosity of the Cross.

Christ gives us the best. And so, we have to try and give others the best that we have, following also that example that Our Lord gave us: the generosity of His precious blood, shed in abundance, not just one drop.

There was a superabundance. His generosity in the tabernacle, on the Cross. In Bethlehem, nobody holds anything back.

One of the keys to that generous correspondence is not to hold anything back, to go forward in all the virtues. We can always be improving.

Generous in moments of humiliation.

Generous to have a great faith in difficult moments.

Generous where, maybe in areas we told God to wait: I don't want to grow in that particular area at this particular moment.

Generous with our self-surrender in all sorts of ways.

“To give, and not to count the cost.
To fight, and not to heed the wounds.
To toil, and not to seek rest.
To labor, and not to seek any reward” (St. Ignatius of Loyola, Prayer).

Hopefully, by giving that example of generosity in all the things that God has asked of us, we spread that example further. It's one of the ways we create a greater peace around us.

When there's generosity and self-giving in the family, there's peace, serenity, joy.

Happiness in this world is found to a large extent in giving and in self-giving. Part of that is forgetting all about ourselves.

Christ left nothing for Himself. He loves to see a reflection of His generosity in souls around Him. He's promised all sorts of rewards to the generous. “I promise you a hundredfold” (cf. Mark 10:29-30).

We find that Mary of Bethany produced a genuine nard of great value. Judas, who knew the price of everything but the value of nothing, asked, “Why was this not sold for three hundred denarii?” (John 12:3-8).

Commentators say that was the equivalent of a year's wages. It was a lot of money.

We can ask Our Lord for the grace not to get attached to small things: clothes, time, energy. To accept humbly and generously our limitations. To struggle generously to overcome our defects. To be generous in our work.

To be generous in our order: have specific targets. Things to be done at a certain time and a certain day. Do the least pleasant tasks first. Get them out of the way.

Be ready to help with an upright intention. Anyone who may need our help. Be available. Be ready to do favors for people who ask us to do favors.

Be generous to accept people as they are, without attaching too much importance to their defects.

Be generous in giving a positive tone to our conversations. People love to be with people who talk positively about things all the time. Avoiding negative criticism.

Be generous in making it easier for people around us to come closer to us, not being deterred by the humbler chores.

Be generous in giving other people the benefit of the doubt.

In all this, while being closer to Christ.

We are told in The Forge: “We should offer the Lord the sacrifice of Abel. A sacrifice of young unblemished flesh, the best of the flock; of healthy and holy flesh; a sacrifice of hearts that have one love alone—you, my God. A sacrifice of minds, which have been shaped through deep study and will surrender to your Wisdom; of childlike souls who will think only of pleasing you. —Lord, receive even now this sweet and fragrant sacrifice” (J. Escrivá, The Forge, Point 43).

“We have to learn how to give ourselves,” we’re told in The Forge (Point 44) “to burn before God like the light that is placed on the lampstand to give light to those who walk in darkness; like the sanctuary lamps that burn by the altar, giving off the light to the last drop is consumed.”

The Lord, the teacher of love, is a jealous lover who asks for all we possess, for all our love. He expects us to offer Him whatever we have and to follow the path He has marked out for each one of us.

Our Lady, at the Annunciation, gave Our Lord a blank check. “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Whatever it is you want to demand of me. The sky's the limit.

To go to visit Elizabeth. To go to Bethlehem with nothing. To go to Egypt. To come back to Nazareth. And ultimately, to be at the foot of the Cross.

“Our Lady is the model of all the virtues,” we're told in the Catechism. In particular, the model of the virtue of generosity. She never stops giving; fulfilling, right to the very end, that desire of generosity that she said at the Annunciation.

Mary, as we look forward to your Queenship, your reward for your generosity, may you encourage us to have that same correspondence to grace that you had in the course of your life.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW