Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.)
St Paul was taking up a collection. Giving to a collection is like planting corn. If you were to plant one seed, you would not get much corn. If you were to plant four in single row, you would get more. If you were to plant the same four seeds in two rows, side by side, you would get a bigger harvest still. If you were to sow many seeds, you should be able to multiply your harvest many times more.
If you are investing in the stock market, you should know that a gain of 300 percent does not multiply your profit by 300, but only by 3. The decimal point goes before the second last digit; do not allow yourself to be swept up by four- or five-digit percentages. Percentages can lie or manipulate the buyer.
St Paul, however, is not misleading us. If we sow sparingly, we reap sparingly; if we sow bountifully, we reap bountifully,
Today, we remember a holy person from the middle of the third century. He is Lawrence, a deacon of the Church in Rome. As deacon, he had to manage the wealth and properties of the Church. When the emperor was persecuting Christians, he ordered Lawrence to hand over the treasures of the Church. He dutifully assembled all the poor and needy, and told the emperor that these were the wealth of the Church. The emperor did not like this, and had Lawrence put to death.
Lawrence was generous in supplying the needs of the poor. The emperor was generous in persecuting the Christians. The harvest Lawrence gained was eternal life; the harvest the emperor gained was the wider growth of the Church, not exactly what he had planned.
Our question of the day is how we are planting, investing, working with our talents and energies for the best growth of our lives for the work God has given us.