Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Octoechos Tone 1. Holy Priest-Martyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope (98-117). Holy Prophet Jonah (786-46 BC). Venerable Jonah the Presbyter, Father of Theophanes, Composer of Canons, and Theodore the Branded
2 Corinthians 9:6-11. Luke 5:1-11.
Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
“My mind is made up!” That is the final declaration in an argument in which the person has dug in their heels under pressure from someone else. Whatever good was being urged upon them by the other party is left unreceived.
“I’ve made up my mind.” That statement uses the same words but says something completely different. We speak like that when we begin sharing with someone else the results of our deliberations on information we have received from them, having weighed options and considered risks.
When St. Paul says in today’s epistle reading that, “Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion,” he is indicating that, in the matter of charitable giving, God relates to us like the other party in that second conversation. How dignifying! We have a God-blessed vocation of stewardship to discern how we might participate with him in “the universal destination of goods.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
2403 The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise […]
2405 Goods of production – material or immaterial – such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guests, for the sick and the poor.
Just as, in openness to life, we depend upon God in procreation, we are called to do so in “sowing and reaping”, giving and receiving.