Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
If you’ve ever spent enough time with a toddler, you’ll start to notice how generous they can be with their food and toys. I find this often with a two-year-old I teach who always has to check on me during snack time with a gesture and a question: “You have food?” And when I would respond no, he would always offer his own snack.
It’s strange that as we grow up, we seem to lose our care-free generosity. While we maintain a responsibility to generosity, we meticulously choose to what extent we want to give, not the capacity we are able. When I hear the first reading for Sunday, I think of the small children I teach, “for the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthly shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.” (Book of Wisdom,9: 13-18) Children prioritize the present. Sometimes this includes thinking of their own needs, but this is only when they are in need. Toddlers can quickly learn that the people around them also have needs and that they can be a part of the solution. As adults, we are fully aware that others have needs, but it’s hard to be bothered when we are stuck thinking about all of our own past, present, and future needs.
Jesus invites us today to sacrifice everything. He doesn’t say this as a test or a punishment, but tells us this is a necessity if we want to be freed from the burden of the world. Now this doesn’t mean that we can drop all of our responsibilities and live as monks (at least not for most of us), but it means offering all of our possessions over to God to do with it what He wills. This is an immensely difficult task when we consider it as all OUR possessions that we have EARNED, rather than the tools we have been GIVEN to glorify God with. When we acknowledge them as the possessions of God, we, firstly, feel no entitlement to these gifts and secondly, no stinginess to hoard them. The gifts of God are abundant and there is no reason to feel as though you will lack when you are giving exactly to the need God calls you to.
This is the disposition of children. They trust that their parents will provide for all their needs. They recognize the goodness in sharing where there is abundance. These are the thoughts of an innocent body and a mind concerned only with justice. The first step to holiness is a childlike gratitude and a pure generosity will naturally follow. It won’t be a struggle to give or even a need to give, but simply a desire.