Today’s readings elaborate on Christian generosity which our Lord calls us to. A generosity of heart and love!
The first reading tells us that our harvest depends on the quantity of the seed we sow. “The more you sow, the more you harvest.” God is calling our attention to the motivations of our act of giving. Why do we give? Is our giving rooted in love for neighbour? Is it all about our quest for selfish fame and honour? Yet the reading tells us that if we give with godly motives God will provide for us because he is full of all that we may need.
The gospel reading crowns the ideology of giving. Why did Jesus use the expression “grain of wheat?” “Truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” Jn 12:24
A grain of wheat represents the small we have; and if we accept to allow it fall to the earth by being generous to our neighbour, it will die to bear more fruits. Jesus used the seed here to pass the message that one must not have all he wants to be generous. Generosity comes from the heart and motivated by love not on the plenty. It means not clinging unto what we have but using it for the services of God’s people. This is what loosing your life to gain it means. We are talking here of the kind of giving that does not sound a trumpet but that which Jesus said, “Your left hand should not know what your right hand is giving.” God who sees it will surely reward you.
A Priest once said, he was scandalised that people give large sum of money to the church during occasions, where by their relatives are in need of food and they are doing nothing about it. He said, “Why would you come and give hundreds of thousands to the church where someone near you is dying of hunger? Go first and feed the poor, cloth the naked, help the sick, share with the orphans, widows and strangers; this is what giving is all about.”
When we give to our neighbour with generous motives, (no matter how small it may be) we are planting the grain of wheat and Jesus will water it to bear more fruits in our lives.
If we do this, God will continue to provide for us according to his riches in glory for ever, Amen.
God bless you today!
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