Homily for Tuesday
11th Week in Ordinary Time
June 17, 2025
2 Cor 8: 1-9
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence,
N.R.
“We want you to know, brothers and
sisters, the grace of God that has been given to the churches of Macedonia” (2
Cor 8: 1).
Portrait of St. Paul
(Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls)
The grace of God that Paul singles out
is faith that produces joy even in afflictions and generosity even out of
poverty. We don’t know what affliction
the churches of Macedonia were experiencing, but we can imagine hostility, at
least. It was at Philippi, after all,
that Paul and Silas had been beaten and put into prison (Acts 16:19-24).
We know what the generosity
involved. Paul has organized a
collection for the church at Jerusalem, which is suffering from
want—unspecified, but obviously of a material nature; perhaps the need to
support widows, orphans, and the sick, as hinted in the early chapters of Acts.
So Paul is appealing to the church at
Corinth to be generous like the Macedonian churches, and he flatters them a
little: “As you excel in every respect,
in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for
you, may you excel in this gracious act also” (8:7).
Possibly, brothers and sisters, you’re
able now and then to assist financially our brothers and sisters in need, e.g.,
relief after a natural disaster or an offering to provide food in some drought-hit
or violence-stricken situation. More
than a possibility, tho, is your ability to offer generous prayer, e.g., for
the victims of war or human trafficking or a wretched economy, or for migrants
and refugees. You can keep in touch with
your families, past pupils, and former colleagues, offering friendship and
moral support, whose value can’t be measured in dollars but is akin to the
sun’s rising or the rain’s falling, immeasurable blessings from God (cf. Matt
5:45).
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