“But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.” // Luke 8:15
My mom has a missionary group based in the US which serves the people of her hometown and neighboring villages in the south of the Dominican Republic. Every so often she makes an announcement at our home parish requesting donations. On this particular day, after making her appeal, she walked to the back of the church and was greeted by a familiar face. His frail hands and lean body housed a strong spirit and a good, generous heart. Arcadio quietly got her attention and extended his hand to her, slipping a folded up paper into my mother’s hand. It was a twenty-dollar bill.
My mom insisted he take back the donation since she knew his financial situation was not good. But he also insisted. He challenged my mom’s thinking—enough that she still has not forgotten that moment from almost ten years ago. He reasoned with her, “It is not much, but I know it can help someone who is more in need than me. Please take it.” My mom was humbled by his generosity and simplicity.
She took his offering and on that day was inspired to begin a new aspect of the mission called in Spanish, “De Pobre a Pobre”—meaning, from one poor person to another. From the money collected from people like Arcadio, the missionaries would be able to personally bless those they would meet on the streets during their evangelization walks who were in obvious financial need. These would come to include families in need of money for groceries, parents needing to buy wheelchairs for their children, elderly lacking money to buy their medicine, the list still goes on. All of this because of one man’s good and generous heart.
Arcadio passed away last year, yet I still think of him—a man small in stature and body mass, weakened by illness and old age, whose face was illuminated by the greatness of his heart. May we be like Arcadio and allow our souls to not only hear the word of God but to “embrace it with a generous and good heart” (Luke 8:15), that we may bear abundant fruit.
