Tuesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
I read a terrific book a few years back by James Martin, S.J. called My Life with the Saints. It's a spiritual memoir and also an opportunity to take a stroll through several centuries of Catholic life and meet our saints, courtesy of the author. One of the themes throughout has been all the very ordinary and seemingly small ways that each of the saints carries out the call to follow Christ, which I also find to be a consistent theme in today's readings.
The first reading (Sirach 35:1-12) seems to be about offerings to the Lord. The ancient readers of this text might have associated it mostly with temple worship and the sacrifices offered at the temple altar, but Sirach also clearly means a great many kinds of offerings that we can give to each other. Killing animals might have been the ritual sacrifice given to God in Jewish law, but Sirach clearly emphasizes justice and generosity.
Living with this constant spirit of generosity and justice can seem overwhelming until we remember that justice and generosity are not usually grandiose actions, but begin with things that seem small. Sirach notes that if we are practicing charity or love, for example, we ought to give the best flour.Therese of Lisieux is, of course, the obvious one for doing small things with great generosity; her way of the "Little Flowers" shows us how to be generous even in the small things. For example: Be generous in spirit with people who are angry or upset or complain. Strive to be generous with time, rather than focused on electronic gadgets.
The gospel reading (Mark 10:28-31) shows us how all these small, seemingly insignificant actions lead to something bigger than the sum of their parts. Peter and the other disciples speak to Jesus about how they've given up everything - a great example of generosity. But what "everything" looked like at the start of following Jesus - leaving their nets - looks much different than "everything" by the end - being willing to give up their lives. Yet their lives are marked by being persistent in trying give generously, live justly and seek charity.
Several of the other saints' lives in Martin's book emphasize how we might start small and end somewhere big. Joan of Arc is one of the first saints mentioned. After she had her visions, she started small: she sought approval from the garrison commander to help in the wars. Eventually she was heard even by the king and went on to lead the French armies but also to be a witness to Christ for all of us.
Today, let us seek to do small acts of generosity with great hearts.
- Jana M. Bennett