February 23, 2025; Luke 6: 27-38; 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
There was once a very fortunate man. His family was able to provide him with an excellent education. After school, he entered the field of financial investment. In time, he began his own firm that developed some high-tier hedge funds that were incredibly productive. He became very wealthy. By the time he was fifty, he owned four houses, two yachts, and had a net worth of over a billion dollars. It was then that an aneurism burst in his brain, and he found himself standing before the gates of heaven.
Saint Peter came out. “Hello,” he said, “I see you have arrived.” “Yes,” the man said, “I have lived an extremely successful life, and I hope to spend eternity here with you.” “Excellent,” said Saint Peter. “Let me just look up your file.” He opened his laptop. “Wow,” he said, “There’s a lot here, give me a minute to look through it.” Peter kept scrolling through page after page, for almost an hour. Finally, with a certain amount of resignation, he looked up and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t find anything here.” “What do you mean?” said the man, “There are all kinds of things there. What are you looking for?” “I’m looking for acts of generosity, and for all that you’ve been given, and for all that you have, I can’t find a single one. Help me. Help yourself. Can you think of any time in your life, when you gave something to someone else without expecting anything in return.”
The man thought for a while, and suddenly lit up. “Yes,” he said, “Yes. I remember five years ago, I was walking to dinner, and a poor man asked me for help. I gave him twenty bucks. That’s something, isn’t it? That counts, doesn’t it?” “Yes,” said Saint Peter, “that does count.” Relieved, the man then asked, “Can I enter Heaven now?” Peter closed his laptop very slowly and pulled out his wallet. “Here’s twenty dollars,” he said, “Go to Hell!”
That story captures Jesus’s message in today’s gospel, when he says the measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you—the measure of our generosity will determine the joy that we receive. And we should not limit Jesus’s words only to our fate in the afterlife, because the simple truth is this: generous people are happy people. People who are thankful for what they have and give generously to other are those who find the joy of living. They understand that it is not in holding on but giving away, that the full beauty of life can be experienced.
So today, Jesus asks us to be generous, to be generous for our own sake. He asks us to be generous with our patience, the patience we show to our stubborn family and friends. He asks us to be generous with our forgiveness, the forgiveness that we show even to those who do not deserve it. He asks us to be generous with our concern, concern not only for those who are close to us, but for people throughout the world who are deprived of food, education, and health care.
He asks us to be generous because generosity not only helps others, it increases the quality of our lives. It makes us happy. And it makes Saint Peter’s job much easier, when we stand before heaven’s gate.