Give, and Gifts will be Given

by David Lins  |  02/20/2022  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

Before I dive into this weekend’s readings, I’d like to address something... I’ve had two different people tell me they cut excellence and spiritual growth. For more out this column and send them to family members who live elsewhere. This is very humbling for me—and completely unnecesssary for you.

If you believe this column would help someone else’s faith, 1) praise God! 2) encourage them to visit www.oloj.org and scroll down just a bit. My column is found toward the bottom of our website’s landing page. Hope this helps.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming... Back when I was a Coordinator of Youth Ministry, people would say, “That’s amazing. I could never do that job.”

I was always taken aback because I’ve always found teens to be amazing and I felt honored to be witness to their journey from Catholicism being the Faith of their parents, to it becoming something they claim as their own.

I got back SO MUCH MORE from those 18 years than I put in. And it isn’t like I didn’t put my heart and soul into it. But maybe that is precisely why I got so much out of it.

This Sunday’s Gospel tells us, “Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.”

Did you catch the language there?

Give. And gifts will be given to you. A whole bunch. Like, more than you think can possibly fit in your life. Stuffed into your life. Packed in there so neatly you’d think Marie Kondo visited. But messier because all the blessings won’t be able to be contained. Then, God will dump all those blessings all over you.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

But you already know this. You can think of examples in your own life where you gave and were given more in return.

And yet—when it comes to God—it’s even better than that. If we live our lives for Him, soaked in the sacraments and cracking those Bibles... that time we spend? It is repaid with eternity. Like I said, “pretty good deal.”

Comments, concerns, questions? Email David at dlins@oloj.org

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