“… FOR GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER” (2 Cor 9:7)

⏰Feast of St. Lawrence (10 Aug 2017)

????2 Cor 9:6b-10; Ps 112:1b-2, 5-6, 7-8, 9 (R.v.12a); John 12:24-26

What do you understand by giving cheerfully? Do you understand it to mean giving so much money as many of our harvest thanksgivings and launchings interpret it? Such misinterpretations and misunderstandings arise from the exegetical crime of picking out just a part of a biblical passage and use it to mean the rest.

The full verse of 2 Cor 9:7 says, “Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” The message, therefore, is on giving from your heart, which enables you to give yourself completely like the widow in Luke 21:1-4.

Such a giving demands from us not just material things but also our entire being in service to God. St. Lawrence, whose Feast we celebrate today in the Church was a perfect example of that. He was a Deacon in the Church, and took care of the poor at the time of great persecution in the Roman Church. He gave himself up to doing this in such a way that he used the poor to identify his possession. Probably, he could say, “It is no longer I who live but the poor who lives in me.”

What is the reason for your giving? To please God or man? I encourage you to let it be for God alone. It is in that way that you can hate your life in this world and keep it for eternal life (cf. John 12:24-26).

May God strengthen your resolution to live your life for him. May he bless the work of your hands with multiple blessings, and in the end, grant you eternal life. Amen.

Kindly remember in your prayers the soul of my classmate and friend, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ogbeide, who would have been celebrating his fourth anniversary of priestly ordination today but died in active service after six months of ordination.

I wish you a lovely day. Peace be with with you.