Fr. James's Sunday Homily

Perhaps Jesus was tired, maybe even disturbed after his confrontation with the Pharisees, so he sat down to rest, reflect, or simply just to get away from a tense situation. As he was sitting down he watched the people putting money into the treasury of the Temple. This Sunday’s Gospel narrative teaches us a beautiful lesson about generosity. “A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents” (Mark 12: 42)

Generosity is a beautiful virtue. Not only are we to be generous with our financial resources, but we need to be generous in everything that we do.

Not too long ago my parents were telling me about a dear friend of theirs that passed away. The wake and the funeral were packed with people from all over the city. For many years their friend used to help out the elderly homebound people of his neighborhood by cutting their lawns, shoveling their snow and doing their food shopping at no cost to the people that he was helping.

Locally, here in Corpus Christi, many stories are told about how the Fuedo brothers used to help the poor. For many years Ron and Joe ran a few very successful grocery stores. They were always helping people who could not afford to buy the necessary groceries that they needed for their homes.

People still remember how the telephone would ring just as Ron was finally able to sit down with his wife and children for Thanksgiving dinner after so many long hours dedicated to the grocery store. Without a complaint, he would excuse himself from the table, answer the call and then inform his wife that he would return shortly. The call was from a person who did not have food for their Thanksgiving Day meal.

Ron would drive down to his grocery store which was located close to his home, open the door and go into the backroom with large paper bags which he generously filled with enough food for a hearty Thanksgiving dinner... (Continued here)