Isaiah 30:19-21, 25-26 / Matthew 9:35 - 10:1, 6-8
Kate Drexel
came from a wealthy Philadelphia family. While riding about the city, she saw
the tragic plight of black children living in hideous slum conditions. In her
reading she learned about the plight black children in the South and of Native
American children in the West. Moved to pity, Kate founded the Sisters of the
Blessed Sacrament to work among these children. Before Mother Katherine Drexel
died at age 97, she spent nearly $20 million of her own personal fortune to
care for and educate blacks and Indians.
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How are we
using our gifts and talents to further the harvest of God's kingdom? "Do
what you can with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
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We may compare prayer to plugging a floor
lamp into an electric outlet. The power that lights the lamp doesn’t come from
our action of plugging the lamp into the outlet. It comes from the power that
can now flow through the wire because of our action of plugging it in. It’s the
same with the power that flows into our lives when we pray. It comes not from the prayers we say but from
God with whom prayer places us in contact. Just as an electric outlet doesn’t
reach out and plug a lamp into itself, neither does God force us to make
contact with him. It’s up to us to
contact him when we need help.
That’s the way God decided to set up the
world.
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How strongly do we believe God’s Word in
today’s reading, when he says that he will answer us when we cry out to him?
“The reality of prayer can be proved only
by praying” Sherwood Eddy
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We are always attracted to this phrase: Free of charge! Of
course, we would rather be receiving it than to be giving it. Indeed, we get a
spurt of happiness whenever we get something free, and more so when it is
something valuable. As we think about it, let us also reflect about the free
and valuable things that God has given us daily - the warm sunshine, the rain,
the fresh air, the cool evening, the beautiful moon, etc. Most of all, the life
that is beating in our hearts and the love that we experience around us. All
these are certainly blessings from God. But what if God were to charge us for
His blessings? What if God were to
charge us for the help He gave us, for the times He saved us from trouble and
danger, for healing us when we were sick? But God doesn't need our money nor
does He want us to pay Him back anything. God is all loving and generous and
merciful and compassionate. Furthermore, it is out of His great love for us
that He created us in His image and likeness.
Jesus, the greatest gift from God wants us to know this and that is why
He said in today's gospel: You received without charge, give without
charge. It is not just about the material
blessings that we have received from God that we are called to share without
charge with others. Our greatest treasures are in our heart, and in there are
the gifts of love, care, compassion, forgiveness, patience, understanding and
all the blessings that God has given us free of charge. Let us share these
gifts and blessings without charge with the others around us. That will be one
way of preparing to celebrate Christmas, because at Christmas we celebrate the
greatest gift of God. We celebrate the
gift of Jesus, who was given to us free of charge.
****
Let us Pray:
God of mercy and compassion, in your Son, Jesus Christ, you have
revealed yourself as a God of people. Turn our empty hearts to you, give us
eyes to see the depth of our poverty and our inability to build a better world with
our own resources, and then come and build it with us through your Son and our
Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
