(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
If our purse or wallet is closed to keep us from giving to others, it is also closed to receive from God. If we judge others as not worthy of our time, our care, our money or our love, we also judge ourselves as not worthy of the time, the care, the money or the love that God has for us. We also show a lack of love for ourselves.
We have to empty our purses or wallets if we want to fill them. So long as they remain full, we can add no more to them. Only the measure we have measured out are we able to receive when it comes to good things. When it comes to bad things, the amount we measure out is at least the amount we say we want to receive.
A child who has a toy in hand has to let go of the toy to get a cookie being offered. The child readily learns that a closed hand receives nothing.
This holds true for the nation and it holds true for the individual. We have to give good even without looking for good in return. In paying taxes, we have to remember that we give to a common fund so that the totality can receive benefits each cannot have by self alone.
God calls us to be merciful. Somehow the amount we measure out is the amount we get returned to us. We have to hope that God accepts our misgivings in God’s mercy and does not treat us as we deserve. In that hope, we have to overlook the misgivings of others in our mercy.