Today's Gospel

The Two Movements of Generosity

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's Gospel is from Luke chapter 5 verses 27 through 32. "After this, Jesus went out and He saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, 'Follow Me.' And he left everything and rose and followed Him. And Levi made Him a great feast in his home. And there was a large company of tax collectors and others sitting at table with them. And the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against His disciples saying, 'Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?' And Jesus answered them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.'"

So what jumps out at you today? Obviously, for me, the call of Matthew is a significance, right? I think about that a lot. Ever since I was a little kid, I hear the reading Call of Matthew in church. And what strikes me is his just immediate generosity to God's call. Jesus says, "Follow Me," and what do we read? And Levi, Matthew, left everything, got up and followed Jesus.

And I think about when God calls me to do something and how hesitant I can be, or not interested, or looking for excuses, or trying to get out of it, or just slow, just slow to respond to God's call. I was reading last year a book of Jewish spirituality, and there was this rabbi from about 1,000 years ago, literally 1,000 years ago. And he was talking about generosity and sort of described these two movements of generosity.

The first movement of generosity is in our hearts. Our heart stirs with generosity. So we hear about a person with need and we immediately reach into our pockets, metaphorically or literally. We see a person in need or meet a person in need and we immediately are moved to help them. Maybe to volunteer, do something for them in that way, maybe to give them money, maybe to give them food. It could be anything. But that first movement is–it's spontaneous. It's spontaneous generosity. We hear about a person in need, and spontaneously, we want to give.

And then this rabbi is brilliant. He then talked about the second part. I'm calling them movements. He didn't call it that, but sort of the second movement of generosity. And what he said was that from the moment our heart has that impulse to give, almost immediately our head will start to talk us out of our generosity. Our head will start to make reasons and excuses and justifications of why we shouldn't be generous or can't be generous. And I thought it was brilliant. And I've been trying to observe myself ever since. And I see these two movements. I'll hear about a person in need, or I'll see a person in need, and my first response, the spontaneous response of my heart is to be generous. But then my head will start to talk me out of that generosity. And I thought it was a brilliant insight from this rabbi.

And we see this today, right, with the call of Matthew, call of Levi. His response is spontaneous, and he goes with that response. He doesn't let his head talk his heart out of his generosity. And that's beautiful and brilliant and what we're all called to. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

[music] I hope you're enjoying the Daily Gospel Reflections. It's one of the things I love doing, spending this time with you each day. Recently, I released a book called 33 Days to Divine Mercy. If you haven't had a chance to check that out yet, I encourage you to do that today.