“What great benefits you receive from God when you are generous! You give a coin and receive a kingdom; you give wheat bread and receive the Bread of Life; you give something temporary and receive something eternal. Everything you give will be returned to you a hundredfold.” (St. Thomas of Villanova)
St. Thomas of Villanova, the holy Spanish bishop whose feast we celebrate today according to the traditional calendar, put his own words into practice: he gave to the poor what they needed, and he himself died poor.
This is the great challenge to which our Father calls us: whoever gives, receives. God wants us to follow His example on earth: “Though He was in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave” (Phil 2:6).
We could cite many examples that invite us again and again to the same truth: give yourself to God without reserve. Do not cling to yourself; share with those whom God places in your path, and you will have treasure in Heaven.
Bishop St. Thomas wants to instill in us a deep understanding of this mystery of following Christ. It is as if he were saying to us: “See what our Heavenly Father is like. You give so little and receive so much in return. Do you understand?”
What does it take to acquire this attitude?
First of all, trust—in the sense of not seeking our security in material things or in our own illusions and life plans, but only in God. Our Father invites us to follow in the footsteps of His Son’s generosity, and He is pleased to see His Spirit in us. The more we embrace this generosity, the more the Father will shower us with blessings, and the fewer barriers we will have to prevent us from recognizing and imitating His generosity.
In reality, it is very simple. We only have to follow the Lord’s guidance, and His Spirit will lead us to give ourselves completely to our Father. Everything else will follow!