Wednesday, 11th Week of Ordinary Time

June 18 , 2003

On Sunday, we celebrated Father's Day honoring both our natural fathers and our heavenly Father. Certainly as we read through the gospels we find that there is nothing stingy about God as Father. Over and over we see his generosity beyond measure.

As St. Paul says: He is able to provide every blessing in abundance. Paul continues that Jesus wants to and enjoys taking care of us and he suggests to us that we respond continuously in the virtues of generosity and joyfulness.

After all who wants to have someone reluctantly agree to help only to grumble and fuss all time they are supposedly helping.

In the gospel Jesus likewise cautions about too public a display of generosity--not to avoid joyfulness but to avoid boasting--to be discreet about the extent of our almsgiving and charity, our commitment to fasting, and even the intensity of our prayer. These are things to be shared with a spiritual director or confessor, not something to be advertised in the newspaper.

Avoiding concern about what others think of us, whether it be for ill or for good can be difficult. We need to periodically, if not constantly, keep check on the motivations of our words or actions.

The need to have everyone know my good works, even without publication, can be very subtle. If I do something for someone and they do not say thank you, how do I feel? If someone compliments me, can I say "Thank you," or do I say: It really wasn't anything.

If I feel, insecure, irritated, impatient, embarrassed, these may be a clue to my motivation for what I have done. Saying "Thank you" is having an attitude of gratitude, which is appropriate and healthy. It is a living of the Eucharist, an extension of the Thank you we receive from the altar.

When someone is unable to express gratitude to you, it raises the opportunity and real challenge for a genuine good deed to be generous to that person in spite of their lack of gratitude. To give them over and over the example of open hands, unconditional love to a heart that perhaps feels everything has a price.