The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

There are two kinds of people as demonstrated by St. Paul in today's epistle. Abraham had two sons. One is a slave and the other is free.

Thus, the world is divided spiritually into two different groups: those that are slaves to sin (children of the devils) and those that are free (children of God). The spiritual slaves are disobedient and the spiritually free are obedient.

Yet, God's rain falls upon the just and the unjust alike. In today's Gospel we see that Christ performs a miracle (multiplication of loves and fishes) to feed the multitude. And this generosity is likewise a sign of His children. The slaves are stingy or tight with what little they have, whereas the children who are free are generous even if they only possess a little.

God is not outdone in generosity. He repays a hundred fold. And the children of God realize this, and give to both men and God increasing their merits before both God and men.

The prayer of St. Francis expresses this most beautifully: "It is in giving that we receive." Consider the boy who brought food in today's Gospel. He had enough food for himself and perhaps a couple more, but certainly not enough to feed the multitude. Yet, this young man freely placed what little he had at the disposal of God so that all may benefit. And when all had eaten we find more food than when we began. This is something that the children of God understand and cooperate with. They have most generous hearts and will often do without so that they can alleviate the suffering of another.

Not only do we look for the hundred-fold reward, but we consider it an honor and privilege to make a sacrifice in imitation of Christ for the love of God. We must understand that what we do to the least of Christ's brethren we do to Him. Therefore it is an honor to be able to assist another. The benefactor becomes actually the debtor. Those whom we help are truly the ones who are doing us the favor. They are offering us the opportunity to express our love of God and our fellow men. They are offering us the opportunity to imitate Christ. So let us always give with a cheerful heart and never abuse our position of benefactor, but always seek to help others in such a way as to honor them and not insult or degrade them. And even if those we assist prove to be ungrateful let us consider that they are offering us an even greater gift by allowing us to truly put into practice the words of Our Lord in loving our enemies and returning good for evil.

If we do this we build up great treasures in heaven. But this is not all. Such goodness and generosity is very often rewarded many times over in this world.

Let us consider something as precious and simple as our time. In today's rapid pace society with instant communication we find less and less time to communicate with God. So many times I have encouraged people both individually and as families to pray. To perhaps say five decades of the rosary every day, and invariably the response is the same: "we do not have enough time."

God gives each of us twenty-four hours every day. Five decades of the rosary only takes about fifteen minutes. We don't have a quarter of an hour out of twenty four hours to offer to God! Is it no wonder that we never have enough time in the day?

If we will only take time for God and make this time sacred and uninterruptible, giving to God the first fruits of our time, we will soon discover that we still have enough time to do all the other things that are necessary.

Those who pray do not lose time because of their prayers, but gain more time because of their prayers. They are able to accomplish more because they have placed God first. Those who offer their time to assist others, still have enough time to do what they need to do for themselves.

And what is true of our time is true of all that God has placed in our possession. Let us be generous to God because He is the source of all our possessions; and let us be generous to our fellow men, not because they deserve it or because they will repay us sometime latter, but for the love of God and them. Looking only for a reward from God or to imitate Him, and in this we will be true and good children of the promise.

Franciscan Benefactor Seraph Subscription Vocations Have you remembered God?