Becoming a Cheerful Giver

In a reflection on the gospel for August 10 (John 12, 24-25), our chaplain offered some suggestions on how to be a cheerful giver like St. Lawrence. According to a legend about this saint, when his persecutors placed him on a fiery grate, he said, “I am done on this side; turn me over and roast the other.” The homilist suggested that we become like a mop to clean up the spills of others or a pencil, which when sharpened, can be used to help others. These don’t sound very heroic, but they can be a way to be instruments of God’s love.

o be used to show how much God loves us.  A mop is such a lowly, mundane thing but useful to clean up messes. Are we willing to be used by God to clean up the messiness around us?

To become a pencil willing to be sharpened, to suffer pain for others is another way God can use us. Can you imagine allowing yourself to be like a pencil in God’s hands?

I thought of another image to show how God can use us – a piece of cloth that can wipe away tears, sweat, and saliva. There is plenty of sadness and grief in our world to soothe. There are sweating workers that need a comforting cloth. There are sick and elderly that have no one to wipe their mouths.

To be used by God in the most humble, ordinary ways can make us cheerful givers because we become instruments of God’s love. We probably won’t get any recognition in this world, but we will be among the just whom God blesses.