16 June 2021

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Generosity is not easy to sustain. In my work as a teacher, I have felt the limits of my own generosity toward my students when I am asked a question for the tenth time, or when out of exhaustion I feel I cannot keep working on grades or lesson plans. Because of those experiences, I am all the more amazed when I see the tireless devotion of parents, colleagues, or fellow Jesuits who pour themselves out for their children, students, or the faithful. These are the “cheerful givers” who sow bountifully and will reap bountifully, as Saint Paul says in today’s first reading (2 Cor 9:6-11). Sometimes, I wonder how it is that these people are able to sustain their generous self-gift.

God, of course, is the answer. He is the one who can “make every grace abundant . . . so that in all things, having all [we] need, [we] may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Cor 9:8). Let us turn to God, then, asking for the generosity and abundance that we need in order to sow bountifully, confident that he will supply the necessary grace and so enable us to reap bountifully as well.