ACC ~ Matthew 7 v9 - 11

OUR GIFTS TO OUR CHILDREN AND GOD’S GIFTS TO US

AUGUSTINE: But how do evil people give good gifts? Those whom he here calls evil are sinners. As such they are still lovers of this world. It is in accordance with their notion of good that their gifts are to be called good. Their gifts are called good, that is, because the givers consider them good. Although these things are good in the order of nature, they are nevertheless temporal things pertaining to the infirmities of life. Moreover, whenever an evil person bestows them, he is not giving what is his own, for “the earth and the fullness thereof is the Lord’s. … Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.” [1] So even we who are evil know how to give what is asked. How much more confidence ought we to have that God will give us good things when we ask. God will not deceive us by giving us one thing rather than another when we ask of him. Even we do not deceive our children. And whatever good gifts we bestow, we give what is God’s and not our own. SERMON ON THE MOUNT 2.21.73. [2]

[1] Ps 24:1; 146:6 (23:1; 145:6 LXX).

[2] PL 34:1303; FC 11:183-84. We who are drenched in the history of sin still know something about how to give good things to our children. We do not deceive them. In giving, we give to them what is God’s, not our own. Since we who are evil know how to give these good gifts, would not God who is good know all the better how to give good gifts to us when we, like children, ask?

Mt