Giving, getting, receiving

27^th Week OT (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

To understand what Jesus is teaching us about prayer and gifts, we need to distinguish between and among three related terms: giving, getting, and receiving. I can give you a book. You can get that book from me. But did you receive the book as a gift? What if I had borrowed the book from you, and now I'm returning it? Is it a gift? No. What if you helped me organize my office in exchange for the book? That's payment; not a gift. What if I spilled coffee on your book, and now I'm replacing it with a new copy? Not a gift. For the book to be a gift it must be freely given and freely received. No strings attached. No obligations. If I expect you to read the book; write a report on it; and take a quiz. . .not a gift. There are strings attached. Jesus teaches us, “...ask and you will receive; seek and you will find...For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds...” Asking is receiving. Seeking is finding. God gives. We receive. God gives us every good gift from all eternity. From the instant of creation every good gift you will ever get has already been given to you. The exact date and time you will get those gifts is a mystery. What's not a mystery is that you will get those gifts only if you receive them as gifts. If you think of God's gifts as payments or loans or any other sort of conditional exchange, well, you have received them as something other than gifts. And you've missed the chance to give the proper response to receiving a gift – gratitude. However, if you receive His gifts as gifts and give Him thanks, then you grow in humility and improve your ability to recognize future gifts. The best strategy then for receiving God's gifts is to always and everywhere give Him thanks for whatever gifts He's already given you. Here's where faith comes into play – we don't know what's a gift and what isn't. God does. So, give Him thanks no matter what happens. Good, bad, ugly. Give Him thanks. Bad knees? Thank you, Lord. Career going well? Thank you, Lord. Trouble in your marriage? Thank you, Lord. Doing well in your classes? Thank you, Lord. Take every chance to be grateful. To grow in humility. Humility makes it possible for us to recognize God's gifts and receive them as such. It prompts us to ask for what we need and receive what we are given. Remember: we receive out of our faith, our trust. Our Father in heaven will not give us a snake when what we need is a fish.     

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->

Love cannot be outsourced

27^th Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP

St. Albert the Great, Irving

Christian charity – agape – cannot be outsourced to an agency, a bureaucracy, or a corporation. Jesus never commands us to love God and one another through the machinations of gov't committees, commissions, or councils. Agape is one-on-one, hands-on, person-to-person love. The loved and the lover then move on to another in need and love him/her into Christ and then that one joins them to move on to love yet another. We might involve a third-party – like the innkeeper – to help with the basic physical needs of someone in trouble but the loving part of their care is up to us. Now, of course, the innkeeper himself could care for the troubled soul out of love. And that becomes another agape relationship. The point of all these agape relationships is not the relief of material poverty or the healing of wounds. Material poverty is relieved and wounds are healed – and that's all to the good and should be done! But the point – the end goal, the telos – of Christian charity must always and only be to give glory of God. During the Antonine and Cyprian plagues of the 2^nd and 3^rd c in the Roman Empire, the Church flourished b/c Christians were willing to do what the gov't wouldn't – take care of the sick and dying. Their witness turned the tide of gov't persecution, giving the Church her first taste of credibility and respectability. Over the centuries, hospitals, orphanages, hostels, universities, convalescent homes, and scientific institutions followed – all inventions of the Church, established to give glory to God. PF has warned us that the Church can never merely be an NGO, a non-governmental organization, an international agency that sets aside the supernatural work of agape for the salvation of souls for the secular goal of “doing good.” Christian charity is done so that others may see the glory of God at work in my work. Done right, others don't see me at all. But God alone. They see Christ and come to see Christ being perfected in themselves. Are the massive relief efforts of large NGO's more efficient? Sure. But no where does Jesus claim that the Way, the Truth, and the Life is efficient. Or more productive of immediate results. Or better at logistics or management. He simply claims that he is the only Way to the Father. No bureaucracy ever created has the paperwork for that kind of sacrificial love. 

Follow HancAquam or Subscribe ----->