Giving + Self = HUMAN

Giving is at the heart of human relationships. It enriches our human experiences and makes our life worth living. But sometimes it’s hard for us to understand or to accept this fact, that when we do not give we become less human, and when we become selfish we become unhappy because we make ourselves less of what we. Human beings are the only one among God’s creatures who consciously share. All other creatures fight for themselves or more through instinct. And it’s sad that sometimes we forget what giving really means. Why do we give gifts, anyway? For me giving gifts means giving yourself. We give a gift, and the gift stands for our self. Gift could be extensions of ourselves. That’s what is behind birthday gifts and Christmas gifts and all the other things that we give to each other. They are all symbols of ourselves. We often give gifts, but we forget that our self has to be given along with the gifts, and this is now the tragedy in giving gifts. It is the self that goes along with the gift that makes it beautiful but we forget about it. One philosopher says that the only true gift is a part of yourself. God gave us the greatest gift of all – He gave us Himself. He gave us His Son. Christ is giving us Himself every time we share in His Eucharist. We give a little bit of ourselves to God when we spend a few minutes in prayer, when we go to mass, or when we go for confession. That’s why I’m here in the seminary to give myself to God and offer it to Him as my gift.

The gift itself isn’t very important. It could be very simple, very small, or very inexpensive. That doesn’t matter, because the essential gift is the gift of the self. Let us always remember that every gift has to have something of the self in it. We can give time, that always involves the self and it is sometimes what we neglect. We can give support, we can give love, and we can give prayer. They don’t cost very much in material term, but they mean a lot because they are true gift of self. For me the best gift of all is the gift of forgiveness.

Let me end with this very short story: one day a man complained to his angel, “Give, give, give… nothing but give. I’m tired of giving.” “Okay let’s make a deal,” replied his angel. “You stop giving the moment God stops giving you”. The man just kept quiet for he realized that what his given is nothing compared with God. I hope that we do not stop giving especially our selves to others and remember that everyday is a wonderful time of giving but let us give gifts – those that really come from us, from our hearts.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH and GOD BLESS US ALL!!!