(Listen to this homily here).
St. Paul speaks about an apparent contradiction to open the
first reading. He tells the Corinthians,
“We want you to know, brothers and
sisters, of the grace of God that has been given to the churches of Macedonia,
for in a severe test of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their
profound poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.” The people in Macedonia apparently were
going through some difficult times.
They faced profound poverty—and
they were joyful? Generous? This doesn’t make sense from a
materialistic or consumerist society.
But
in my life experience, it is true.
It seems that the poorer the region, the more joyful and generous people
actually are. I have seen this
firsthand in Ghana when I have had the chance to visit my friends.
Here’s
one example. A year and a half ago
I was in Ghana with a number of parishioners from St. John’s—including some
high school students. One of our
high school students gave out a bag of Starburst to a bunch of kids. She gave away the last Starburst and
another child showed up. We
watched as a little girl—four or five years old—unwrapped her piece of candy,
broke it in half and gave it to her friend.
Yesterday
I spoke about detachment. This is
so important for us in a place with everything. Poverty—detachment—helps
puts things in perspective and makes us realize whatever we have is God’s.
And
this comes straight from God Himself!
Listen again to how our first reading closed today: “For you know the gracious act of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich…” Jesus emptied himself—detached himself
if you will—to become poor.
Like
the Macedonians…like Jesus himself…may we become poor in order to be joyful and
generous.
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