Tuesday, August 10, 2021

10 August 2021 - a cheerful giver


“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Our lives, closed in on themselves, held tightly and not offered to others, remain as grains, small, hard, and not very useful. Seeds do not exist to remain as seeds, but rather to be transformed and grow. When the winds of the spirit blow we must allow ourselves to be shaken free from whatever plants have held us secure until then. We must allow ourselves to be seeds scattered even though it means the soil will cover us, even though we ourselves will be cracked open so that new life can emerge. This will likely be disorienting and painful, but the results will be worth it.

Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.

If we love our life, as we currently have it, we will lose it. As time passes, we ought to begin to discover this even before our lives are over and our decisions are final, as the passage of time forces us to let go of more and more. If, before then our final hour, we can see the bigger picture, then we can allow our lives to be given so that something more may come of them. We can recognize ourselves as seeds that are meant to eventually bear fruit as plants, and therefore commit ourselves to lives offered in order to bear fruit. We can recognize when we are being tempted to live in a way that is apparently an attempt to remain a seed forever, to build up walls, and cling to safety. When we recognize temptations like this for what they are they are easier to overcome.

Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.

Since we see around us so many abortive seeds that never became plants it is especially helpful that Jesus first demonstrated himself the way he would ask us to follow later. Jesus never for a single moment thought to remain a seed. His life was always directed toward the mission, toward the cross, toward the tree of life that would bear for us the ultimate fruit.

Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion,
for God loves a cheerful giver.

It is not only as martyrs that we give our lives. Every little act of love counts. Bit by bit we break out of our shells and begin to push free from the soil toward the sun. Yet there is no gift that God asks for us, time, talent, treasure, or indeed our very lives that he does not desire us to give cheerfully. Saint Lawrence was so close to God that even though he was being roasted alive he was still reputed to have been able to say, "Turn me over, I'm done on this side." And whether or not that story is apocryphal it nevertheless makes a great point of the goal, gifts offered without reluctance, without complaining. Since it is God himself who supplies everything we have to offer we too can learn to offer it cheerfully back to him who provided it.

Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you,
so that in all things, always having all you need,
you may have an abundance for every good work.



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