Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 112, a poem about why and how to live a generous life.

Blessed the one who is in awe of the LORD,
    who greatly delights in God’s commands.
That person’s posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
    the upright generation shall be blessed.
Wealth and riches shall be in their house;
   their generosity shall endure forever.

Psalm 112:2-4

The psalm nicely complements our readings: 

• Paul, nudging the Corinthians for a general collection
• Jesus, preaching sincerity and humility in our giving – both to humans and to God.

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Generosity is the fruit of the theological virtue of charity. 

I think “charity” gets a flimsy definition in our modern culture. Many think of it only as a noble intermittent gesture toward those who are disadvantaged, like change tossed into the Salvation Army bucket.

But it’s a way bigger deal. Here are a few clips from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They offer so much thought for our meditation. After that, we might pray to deepen in true charity and to manifest it in quiet, sustained generosity.

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The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity;
they animate it and give it its special character.
They inform and give life to all the moral virtues.
They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful
to make them capable of acting as God’s children and of meriting eternal life.
They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit
in the faculties of the human being.
There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity.

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Charity is the theological virtue
by which we love God above all things for God’s own sake,
and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

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The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity,
which “binds everything together in perfect harmony”;
it is the form of the virtues;
it articulates and orders them among themselves;
it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice.
Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love,
and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.

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The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy;
charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction;
it is benevolence;
it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous;
it is friendship and communion:.

Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works.
There is the goal; that is why we run:
we run toward it, and once we reach it,
in it we shall find rest.

Music: Ubi Caritas – Taize