Homily for Tuesday, 11th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Tuesday
11th Week of Ordinary Time

June 15, 2021
2 Cor 8: 1-9
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Home, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“In a severe test of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part” (2 Cor 8: 2).

Paul’s writing from Macedonia, where he’d founded churches in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Beroea (we don’t have a letter to the Beroeans), and he’s informing his friends in Corinth, in the province of Achaia, of the generous collection that the Macedonians have been taking up “in the service of the holy ones,” i.e., for the church in Jerusalem.  This collection is mentioned in several places in Paul’s letters, and the Corinthians also were contributing.  Paul’s appealing to them to match the generosity of the Macedonians, who are making their gift from a position of “affliction” and “profound poverty”—a condition the Corinthians don’t share.

We don’t know what afflictions the Macedonians were experiencing—whether it was some form of persecution, a natural disaster like the earthquake that struck Philippi while Paul and Silas were in jail there (Acts16:19-39), economic hardship, or something else.  Nevertheless, they’re displaying “a wealth of generosity” (8:2).  The Corinthians ought to “complete this gracious act also” (8:6).

I’m sure no one ventures to take up a collection among you, brothers.  I’m sure, however, that as a community you’re generous in responding to various needs of your province, of your schools, of people in want in one form or another.

Our generosity can extend beyond material goods.  You remember the scene in the Acts of the Apostles when a lame man accosts Peter and John as they’re going into the Temple.  Peter responds, “Silver and gold I have not; but what I have I’ll give you.”  And he heals the man in Jesus’ name. (Acts 3:1-8)  We have Jesus to share with people:  his love, his friendship, his virtues.  We can give Jesus to each other, to our staff, to our families, to alumni that we’ve kept in touch with, to the doctors and nurses we see, perhaps more often than we’d like to.  This was always the most gracious act within our power, and it still is.