Day 4 of Advent, 12/06/23: Give Away What You Receive (Mt 15:36-37)

"Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people. They all ate and were satisfied.  Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over" (Mt 15:36-37).

Bishop Barron's point is that if you give away what you have received, God will multiply what you give away to bless others, and then you will still have plenty left over. He calls this the loop of grace: "Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fishes. There is no better exemplification in the Scriptures of what I have called the loop of grace. God offers, as a sheer grace, the gift of being, but if we try to cling to that gift and make it our own, we lose it."  The converse is also true. If you keep for yourself all that you have received, you will shrivel up without blessing anyone else--not even those you love.

Prayer: Lord, I know that you have given me much, yet I have not given away much of what I have received but kept it for myself and my future. Yet the little that I did give away, you have blessed beyond measure. Lord, help me not hold on to my life and possessions, but enable me to give away whatever is left during the few remaining years of my life.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023 First Week of Advent Matthew 15:29–37 Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fishes. There is no better exemplification in the Scriptures of what I have called the loop of grace. God offers, as a sheer grace, the gift of being, but if we try to cling to that gift and make it our own, we lose it. The constant command of the Bible is this: what you have received as a gift, give as a gift—and you will find the original gift multiplied and enhanced. One realizes this truth when one enters willingly into the loop of grace, giving away that which one is receiving. The hungry people who gather around Jesus in this scene are symbolic of the hungry human race, starving, from the time of Adam and Eve, for what will satisfy. We have tried to fill up the emptiness with wealth, pleasure, power, honor, the sheer love of domination—but none of it works, precisely because we have all been wired for God and God is nothing but love. .