What type is your Giving?
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: 8th November, 2015
1 Kgs 17: 10-16; Heb 9: 24-28; Mk 12: 38-44
The widow at the gates of Sidon, the widow in the Temple of Jerusalem and God who gave God's only son as a sacrifice are given to us as models of giving, in today's Word. Giving is one act that can be done out of many a kind of motivation. Not all giving are of the same kind or type or degree! Analysing the models present to us, we are called to reflect on our type of giving... reflect along and say, what type is your giving!
Giving to Gain: there is a lot of giving that is going on today. There are people or agencies or corporates who give even tons of money, but they are particular about what they stand to gain. They calculate the gain and then proceed to give: it could be a tax exemption, or a favour in return, or a end to achieve, or a popularity stunt! However big and enormous this giving is, it would not be truly giving, it is in the final analysis, a getting, a begging, a receiving, a business, a gain! At times when we give, however small it is, from our time or energy or effort, if we are particular about our calculations of gain, then our giving has no value in itself, it value is merely what we have gained.
Giving to Get: this is the safest form of giving, where one is sure what one gives is not merely thrown in the air but it will return. I do a favour to someone expecting a favour in return; I be nice to someone expecting the person to be nice to me in return; I claim to love someone with the expectation that i will be loved in return! These are giving to get. Though it is not about gain or profit or expecting a glorious image of oneself, this is a plain give and take, a barter mentality.
Giving to Give: this is truly divine, truly Christ-ian! I give, because I find fulfillment in giving. I stand any chance of getting it back or I dont think anyone else will ever know, but I give, I give whole heartedly, of my time, my effort, my energy, my concern, my resources, because it is in giving that I find the true meaning of my life. God gave God's only Son because God loved the world to that extent; it was an expression of God's love, not an expectation of the same in return! Jesus gave his life, his body and his blood, and what did he expect in return?
I am doing all this for him or for her or for them, what am I going to get in return?
Oh, I did all these to you, and is this how you respond?
Is it safe to give this, or do this, for this particular person, will it come back?
I gave this, I did this, with so much of effort and money, and they dont even thank me in public!
These kinds of statements are candid indicatives of a giving that is not after the heart of our beloved Lord and Saviour. Because with the Lord we are called to give without measure. Freely freely you have received, freely freely give! Here the giving is to give, and nothing more!
