Lesson 19 Opening Thoughts on Generosity: Generosity is much broader than philanthropy or donations. There is secular generosity and spiritual generosity. Today, let s focus on the spiritual generosity. The basic contrast is the intent of your generosity. Often in the secular world the intent is for recognition, praise, thanks and maybe even a tax deduction. The intent of spiritual generosity is to lift up another person and to do so in silence, without expectation of payback. Generosity To love is to give. God loves us and He gives us everything. There is no greater friend than He who is prepared to lay down his life for another.[john 15:13] It is indeed a gift to be generous, because it takes a lot to decide not to keep what is rightly ours but to give it to another, especially to a stranger. When we give we truly deny ourselves, as the Lord has requested. Generosity must be done in silence in order to merit Grace from God and not merely the thanksgiving of men. It is very easy to be generous to our relatives or friends but that is not generosity since we will be repaid for that with friendship, thanksgiving and praise. Generosity must extend to the poor and the needy; it is a quest for justice, we do God s work by providing for those who don't have. The highest gift you can give is the gift of ourselves. The perfect example is God the creator. In generosity he generates man in His image. God s gift of himself through Christ represents the ultimate form of generosity, and is the model for all human generosity. To live authentically is to give generously, as God does. To the calculating flesh, being generous seems too costly. To the generous heart, being greedy seems incomprehensible. Greed impoverishes us, not generosity. True generosity enriches us one hundredfold. There is superabundance in each of us and God is ready to replace any we give to others. Not to release our superabundance is to cost us who we are. Nothing is more costly than greed. The fact that greed is as common as it is indicates that human beings can be estranged from themselves while trying to live a life that is alien to them. The more greedy or lustful we become, the less human we appear. King Midas, Silas Mariner, Scrooge, etc. Generosity in accordance with Matthew 5:39-48 is doing more than is expected and more than you feel comfortable doing. Generosity is to be used in humility for service to others. God has been overly generous to us he has given us life in the body, spirit and in the kingdom. As God is selfless and generous in serving us with good so we must be generous in serving others. To be generous, we must be selfless, like Christ. We must unite our will to God s will. We must want what God wants. We must think as God thinks. We must act as Christ acted.
Is your generosity in service to others helping you to attain the kingdom? We can be generous with thoughts (prayer), words, actions and using created /material things to serve others. Be generous to all but especially to the needy. Look for ways to be generous in building up people mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. God is Love and is always giving out his unconditional love and mercy. To Love is to give gemerouly. When we give we should deny ourselves and be generous in silence to truly receive God s grace and not man s thanks. It is easy to be generous to family and friends. But it isn t true generosity if we get paid back with friendship, thanks or praise. Generosity is a work of justice by helping those truly in need and who can not pay us back. Since God is so generous to us, and we can never pay him back, we must be generous to others, and never expect a payback. Generosity inspires gratitude, and gratitude inspires generosity. God is generous to us and our generosity gives proof of our gratitude towards God. In gratitude we are human; in generosity we are divine. We truly receive when giving - we receive grace, peace, joy, forgiveness, justice and mercy. We can not take what we have with us, but we can leave behind what we have given. Generosity is always connected with lifting up another person. It is a chance to serve, bless or elevate another by giving liberally and without thought of getting. We may never know this side of Heaven who might ultimately be blessed by our generosity. The ripple effects are often shielded from our sight. But God uses our generosity to help convert souls. The New Evangelization is simply asking us to increase our generosity, which is our love.
Lesson 19 Closing Thoughts on Generosity: According to author Matthew Kelly we live in an age of Individualism; Hedonism; and Minimalism. None of these isms is compatible with Generosity. These attitudes are promoted by secular society, by Hollywood, and by the news media. Society encourages us to ask What s in it for me? We re encouraged that If it feels good, do it! And we re taught to ask What s the least I can do? It s no wonder our pews are empty and few people get excited when the government sets out to take away our religious freedom. What s in it for me? God can never be outdone in generosity. When I give back my time, talent, and treasure (which was never really mine in the first place) it will be returned to me many times over. If it feels good, do it! Guess what? It does feel good to be generous. It does feel good to help others. It does feel good to participate. What s the least I can do? We re surrounded by people in need. T e least we can do is to support our Church by generously giving back some of the time, talent, and treasure that has been generously given to us by God. Think abouts: Generosity is taught by word and action. Share with your siblings. Try not to be stingy. Always err on the side of generosity. One gracious word, gift or action can leave quite a wake. Are we being generous when we stake out our seat at the end of the pew and won t move? Be generous and start out in the middle if you re first in the pew. Christ related the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard to make a point about God s generosity. When the owner of the vineyard paid all the workers the same wage for the day, regardless of when each man began work that day, some workers grumbled. The owner rebuked them, What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous? Justice does not preclude generosity. Our assigned job is to love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, ALL our soul, and ALL of our strength (Deut 6:4-5) every day of our life. This is only fair since we owe God absolutely everything. But we ve all unfairly walked off the job at various moments thumbing our noses at him through our disobedience, pride, and selfishness. Some have gone AWOL longer than others, and some s sins are more spectacular than others. But the bottom line is that, in terms of strict justice, God does not owe any of us anything except, perhaps, punishment. But in his extraordinary generosity, the Lord has offered us a deal if we will accept His beloved Son in faith as Savior and Lord, and through the power of the Spirit seek to do His will, and if we will repent each time we fail, He will give us what we do not deserve friendship with Him here that opens out to eternal glory hereafter. The first takers for this offer have typically been those most aware of their need for mercy. And this is why the last have usually been first when it comes to the Kingdom of God.
Generosity, therefore, has its basis in the Creator s freely sharing His creation with us that all repentant sinners might share fully in His love, regardless of whether repentance occurs early in life or late in life. F YOUR PRAYER is truly effective, then, it should be teaching you to experience divine love as absolute and to rejoice in the divine love that others experience, regardless of their spiritual progress. Personal Meditation: How often do you envy others for their spiritual progress or look down on those who have made less progress in faith than you? The consequences of generosity are incalculable, for such a spirit can ripple out to touch the lives of those far removed from the original act. Generosity is another virtue which sows the seeds that can only bear good fruit. We must go out and replace the greed and lust of the world with our generosity. Remember, it is impossible to produce genuine Christ like Generosity by ourselves. A new converted and transformed heart is required. Then a growth process follows which can only take place as we submit to and obey the Holy Spirit. He nurtures those positive character changes that are reflected in our relationships. So let the Holy Spirit put off our old selves and put on the new and virtuous heart of love by growing in generosity. GO MAD - Go Out and Make A Difference by being Generous and uplifting with all our brothers and sisters.
Lesson 19 Questions and Answers