Praise the Lord, my soul! — Psalm 146:1

Mass Readings: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9/Matthew 5:43-48 

Good (?) News 

In today’s first reading St. Paul again offers a seeming contradiction. At best, he appears to be a Pollyanna. At worst, he’s deluded. Good news from Macedonia! They have had “afflictions” and “profound poverty”! What? Yes, good news because in those afflictions is “an abundance of joy” and in that poverty there’s “a wealth of generosity.” Good news because the community chose how to react to those adverse conditions. Its members were open to the graces and blessings that could flow from those hardships when they accepted them, and they transformed them into a form of prayer. How? In an expression still used today, they “offered them up” as a prayer. 

It can be the same with our afflictions and our poverty. And both of those can come in so many ways. In personal ways. In ways unseen and unknown by others. 

Prayer: Dear Jesus, I want to unite my suffering to Yours.