In this Sunday’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Mark, we have a vivid account of a miracle of generosity. Generosity is not a natural human tendency. And so, as we have pointed out before, the miracle of the feeding of the 4,000 is a clear reminder that the ways of God are not the ways of men. It is this simple fact that had resulted in so much opposition to our Blessed Lord’s mission on earth and has caused so much confussion in the lives of many Christians today. On the one hand, we experience an ever-increasing body of technical and scientific knowledge, and on the other hand, we continue to hear the scriptural accounts of acts in which it often seems that God contradicts His own established order of nature. It seems this way to us because we are, of course, looking at these miracles as men do – from a human perspective and not from God’s perspective. We tend to attribute to God, often unconsciously, the same motives that humans have in doing great works. Somehow men do work wonders. Jesus was not the first to do so, yet He did so in a way completely different from the ways of men. He did so from God’s perspective.

So much of our human effort is self-serving and self-oriented. Even if we don’t want to admit it, there is so often a "what’s in it for me" dimension to our actions and to the motivation behind our actions. But the ways of man are not the ways of God. In the New Testament, whenever Jesus is asked to work a miracle for the purpose of demonstrating His own power or ability, He always and steadfastly refuses. He never allows His miraculous power to call attention to Himself. Why did Jesus perform miracles? It was certainly not to prove His own divinity nor to give us examples of His unfailing compassion. The miracles of Jesus were not even done as humanitarian good works or manifestations of a mission of healing. The miracles were not primarily signs of Jesus’ messiahship, but they were signs – signs that the long-awaited reign of God was breaking through into the world of men.

The coming of God’s kingdom interrupts that tight little world of men – shaking men from their complacency and self-centeredness. In Jesus, God was acting in the world of men with sureness and certainty. God’s actions and the motivation behind His actions are characterized by generous self-giving - by unconditional love that always reaches out beyond Himself. God, who in every way transcends the world of humans, at the same time loves this world and acts within it to bring redemption and salvation with purpose and willful intention.

The miracles of Jesus are the deliberate, carefully chosen acts of God – not magic, not the results of chance, not even rarely occurring phenomena – but acts of generous power – acts of the One who completely comprehends all nature – ruling and unconditionally loving all. We humans, because of our self-centered blindness, seldom see God acting in this way. Even those closest to Jesus, as we see in today’s Gospel reading, because of their own blindness, did not expect any great work from Jesus. And those thousands who were fed made no indication at all that they realized what was happening. They simply ate and were satisfied that their physical hunger had been abated. They did not see the act of a generous God.

In many ways we are like the multitude. So often we do not see the acts of a generous God for what they are. I think this might be one reason why the early Church was led to use the term "Eucharist" – thanksgiving – to describe its primary and fundamental act of worship. The Holy Eucharist is the continued self-giving of God begun at the Creation and renewed in the Incarnation. The Holy Eucharist is God’s primary act of generosity continued into time. It is the paradigm of the action and character of a generous God. Throughout the Biblical revelation God models extreme generosity for us. He is the God of the fatted calf, the God of the best robe and the best ring. He is the God who fills our cup until it is running over. He is the God who is willing to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think or desire. He us the God who doesn’t just offer life – He offers abundant life. And He is the God of abundant grace and abundant love. He is the God who sent his only Son, to die for us sinners. He is Himself the completely generous God.

Perhaps this is why God loves a cheerful giver as the Blessed Apostle St. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:7. Perhaps it is because when we are generous, cheerful givers that we are most like Him. The deepest desire of God’s heart is that we should be like Him. This may well be the primary thing that Jesus had in mind when He instructed His disciples to distribute the loaves and fishes to the multitude. Out of His godly generosity Jesus could have easily fed the multitude Himself, but He didn’t. He had his disciples take part in the miracle of generosity. He wanted them to be like Him.

God wants His followers in every age and place to be like Him. That is why He gives us daily opportunities to be generous, cheerful givers. Acts of true, unselfish generosity are acts which go beyond merely fulfilling one’s obligation. God is not concerned about "minimal standards" or "minimal requirements". As an example, let us look at tithing. Tithing, as defined in the Law of Moses, is not an act of generosity. Tithing in accordance with the Torah is an obligation. It is when we go beyond duty and obligation that we enter the glorious freedom of godly generosity. It is when we go beyond our bounden duty, beyond our natural inclinations, that we begin to become God-like.

My old friend, Bishop Phil Zampino, once pointed out that one of the most difficult things to get across to people in our materialistic culture is generosity. "It seems as if the more we possess," Bishop Zampino said, "the more we want to possess. But God calls us to a different way. In the summary of the law, Jesus tells us that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (St. Mark 12:29-31). The essence of the love spoken of here is generosity, or as it is rendered in some Bible translations, liberality. The love with which we are to love is known as agape – the same self-giving, self-sacrificing love we receive from God. In this Scripture, God asks of us what is impossible in the natural: He commands us to love as He loves, unconditionally giving of our whole selves, sacrificing for others. He calls us, by His supernatural grace, to walk in supernatural generosity. As we participate in the liturgical year, as we remember and celebrate the phases of the life of Jesus, the generosity of God points the way in which to walk, and it challenges us to respond. Through the beautiful Christmas season true believers around the world celebrate the Incarnation, the Birth of Jesus the Christ who is fully God and fully man. What a wonder and mystery! God's gift to man is the gift of Himself. On January 6, we complete the twelve-day celebration of Christmas and begin the celebration of Epiphany, the feast of the coming of the wise men, when Jesus, the son of God, the son of Mary, was revealed to the magi who had journeyed from distant lands. We remember their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; however, the greatest act of generosity was not on the part of the wise men. True, they traveled far. True, the gifts they gave were of great value, but the greatest gift of all was not theirs to give. The greatest gift was God, who in beckoning them to the manger, was opening the door of His saving redemption to the entire Gentile world. The revelation of Christ to the wise men gives those of us who are not of Jewish lineage real reason for rejoicing, for Christ came first for the Jew, represented by the shepherds. Then . . . He came to the Gentiles, symbolized by the magi. In His generosity, God had planned not just for the salvation of His chosen people, but of the whole world. After the season of Epiphany, we come to Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. During the forty days of Lent, many Christians around the world practice a tradition that has been observed for centuries – giving up something for Lent. The meaning behind this tradition is to offer to God something from our lives which has hindered our relationship with Him. The fullness of its meaning is to offer more and more of our entire selves to God, so as to be filled more fully with Him and His Holy Spirit. One of the Scriptures we read in Lent recounts Jesus' forty-day fast in the wilderness. Not only did He go without food, but He went without all comforts and privileges; He fasted for us. We can respond by generously going without for the love of Him when we are called to do so. At the end of the Lenten season, we enter Holy Week when we see the awesome self-giving love of Jesus in the final week of His earthly ministry. On the night of His betrayal, He gave to His apostles and to the Church the Holy Eucharist. That night when His suffering was imminent, He was concerned to instruct, to equip, and to console His apostles. Even from the cross Jesus gave; He gave His Body and Blood; He gave His life for the salvation of the world. As He hung dying, He entrusted His mother to the care of John, He assured the penitent thief of paradise, and He prayed for forgiveness for those who crucified Him. Amid His agonizing suffering, He was concerned with the needs of others. Following His example of generosity in the face of personal trials, we can seek to give to others even when we ourselves are in need. The birth, life, death, and resurrection of God's only-begotten Son Jesus Christ set before us the true example of giving-giving that goes far beyond the material and draws us into the supernatural realm of God. Here we discover that true love, and hence generosity, is manifest in how we give ourselves away, first to Christ, and then to our neighbors-which include not only those we like and deem worthy of our love and generosity, but those also whom we are not naturally attracted to and those whom we may even be so audacious to judge as being lesser. Yes, we are even called by God to love and to be generous to those whom we believe have wronged us. They may have, but in God’s eyes that injustice may be of little, if any, consequence. One thing we need to remember about giving to God or to other people is this: whatever generosity we may exhibit, it is a reflection of the generosity of God. We can only give what we have received from Him. Through studying both the Old and New Testaments, we see how He has given, and as our hearts are filled with His love, we desire to do as He has done. When I speak of generosity, I am not merely speaking of sharing money or personal wealth. While that is important, what is of greater value is the life yielded to God and to His call. When I contemplate the concept of generosity, I think not so much of the wise men and their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, but rather my mind takes me to the shores of the Sea of Galilee where simple, hardworking fishermen gave of their total livelihood, leaving family, friends, and business to follow the call of Jesus. Or I think of a sinner, a tax collector named Levi (St. Matthew), who at the call of Jesus walked away from everything to give himself to God and to His call. These ancient Christians had no deep knowledge of what would ultimately take place; they simply gave themselves to God. The initial response to God’s call, the surrendering of our lives to Him, is the beginning-as Jesus’ birth was the beginning. Once we have said yes to God’s call on our lives, we must daily choose to give ourselves away, to be generous with our lives. Like love, generosity does not fully come into its own until it is challenged. To be truly generous is to give even when we don’t want to, when we don’t feel up to it, when we feel as though we don't have anything left to give. We all have our limits, though we may not be aware of the boundaries we have set up to protect our time or our peace of mind. It is easy to be generous when we give from our abundance, but it is difficult to be generous when the Lord asks us to give from our poverty."

Dear ones, it is only when we allow the Lord’s abundant grace to work in us truly generous hearts and truly generous motivations that we will discover that we can give more than we ever thought possible; and we, like the disciples in today’s Gospel reading, can take part in miracles of generosity.