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In his 2009
encyclical, Deus caritas est (God is love), Pope Benedict XVI
wrote that “The human being is made for gift...,” meaning
that “In the beginning” God created each and everyone of us to give
of ourselves to others by making our lives a gift for them.
The problem all of
us face, however, is that we live in a culture which denies this
biblical truth. Our culture teaches us not to give, but to
receive; not to give, but to take; and, if give we must, then we had
better get at least as much back in return as we gave. All of
this has become so ingrained in us that we spend our days measuring
ourselves against how well we best others. We assess our worth
and dignity in terms of getting the “better end of the deal” rather
than “pouring ourselves out” for others as gift, as God
intended “In the beginning.”
It’s so very easy to
see how many of us as well as how many people around us have allowed
this culture to so influence and shape how we live our daily lives
that we gradually come to believe, yes, that God created everyone
for gift, but interpreting this to mean “as a gift for me.”
One of the problems
associated with this attitude is that it’s much easier to see in
other people than it is to see in ourselves. But, like it or
not—if only because we all are to some degree products of this
culture—it’s present in many small ways, for example, when we make
demands of other people, yet we won’t lift our little finger for
anyone else. This attitude is also present in big ways, for
example, when we are so closed in upon ourselves that we are blind
to the needs of others around us or we use them (or abuse them) for
our own purposes or pleasure. We turn people into impersonal
means for our personal ends, rather than reverencing and respecting
these people as ends in themselves.
Whether this
attitude exhibits itself in us in small or in big ways, Pope
Benedict XVI reminds us “this is a consequence—to express it in
faith terms—of original sin” (#34). To the degree this
attitude shapes how we view other people or how we act toward them,
this provides the tangible evidence of how sin has infected our
souls—we love ourselves not God and neighbor as ourselves—whether or
not we are aware of this spiritual infection.
Pope Benedict XVI
has proposed a pathway out of this mess, one that leads to
forgiveness, to healing, and to reconciliation, that is, to the
eradication of this spiritual infection from our souls.
What is this pathway? A life characterized by the theological
virtue of charity. Only this possesses the power that makes it
possible for us to return to the way it was “In the beginning...”
when God created each of us for gift.
The economic
troubles we have been experiencing as a nation for the past two
years have affected all of us in one way or another. Some of
us have lost a job; others of us have not received pay raises we had
planned on receiving and can no longer maintain our lifestyles.
Some of us have seen our retirement “nest eggs” dwindle in value;
others of us have seen the value of our homes decrease substantially
to the point that we are on the brink of or having to default on a
mortgage. Viewing all of these economic impacts through the
lens Pope Benedict’s encyclical provides, this downturn has caused
many of us to close in more and more upon ourselves so that even
those of us who want to make a gift of ourselves find it
increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to be a gift to others.
Fretting about
finances. Worrying about job security. Feeling insecure
about the future. Kept awake at night wondering how to cope
and what to do. All of these experiences possess the power to
turn us increasingly inward so that we eventually are no longer even
aware of God or that God created us for gift. All that we
consider is what we need to do and how to do it in order to protect
ourselves from disaster in these tough economic times. Yet,
the truth be told, all of this only keeps blinds us to others and
their needs because we have become so obsessed with ourselves.
It is precisely when
we realize our true situation that we can begin to get back to the
way it was “In the beginning” when God created each of us for
gift. In that way, these tough economic times may be a
blessing in disguise!
Rather than allowing
concerns about the economy, a job, or money to preoccupy us, we can
be a gift for others. Enjoying an evening with family,
friends, and neighbors is a good first step. Try playing a
board game or a card game rather than sitting in front of a computer
by yourself. Watch your children or grandchildren play rather
than watching television by yourself. Rent or download a movie
to watch together as a family rather than watch video clips on
YouTube by yourself. Be a gift for others! Set up events
like these, each of which possesses the power to redirect our focus
outward and beyond an obsessive preoccupation with ourselves.
Rather than allow
concerns about the economy, a job, or money to preoccupy us, we can
look outward and we can begin to see family members, friends,
neighbors, acquaintances, and complete strangers who are struggling
and in need. None of us may be a Daddy Warbucks and have a
bucket load of cash to dole out. But, everyone of us can make
non-cash donations to those who are less fortunate.
For example, we’ve
all see those 2-for-1 sales in all kinds of stores. Yet, how
many of us act on the belief that the second item of the 2-for-1
sale belongs solely to us? Why not make a gift of yourself by
donating that second of the 2-for-1 items to the St. Vincent de Paul
Society or the local food bank provides relief for those
experiencing real need.
Then, too, how many
of us have earned frequent flyer miles or hotel bonus points on
credit cards and are dreaming of that “free” vacation we’ve earned?
Why not make a gift of yourself by assigning those miles and hotel
bonus points to the Red Cross. This would make it possible for
Red Cross volunteers to provide even more aid in disasters and
shelter for those left homeless.
Because our culture
has trained us to focus upon ourselves to the exclusion of others,
we don’t allow ourselves to be what God has created us to be “In the
beginning”, namely, a gift for others. But, when we
begin to grasp how obsessively preoccupied we have become with
ourselves, we also begin to grasp how we have allowed sin to infect
our souls to the point that we no longer are the way God created us
“In the beginning.”
It will only be as
we struggle to get back to that place that we will begin to develop
a depth of spirituality and empathy for others which will remind us
our responsibility to be a gift for them in their need. As
disciples, we cannot buy these things; instead, we develop them
through discipline, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews
reminded us in today’s epistle:
At the time,
all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it
brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained
by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make
straight paths for your feet, that what is lame many not be
disjointed but healed.
This discipline
teaches us how to enter into each new day through what Jesus called
“the narrow gate” filled with the awareness that God has created
each of us for gift, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us in
Deus caritas est. This discipline also provides us a
measure of our spiritual growth: as we look not last but first at
the needs of others as well as how we provide for them before
worrying about providing for ourselves. This discipline
provides the powerful and effective spiritual antidote to what our
culture has taught us and, so much so, that we can become a gift for
those experiencing genuine need if we undertake this discipline.
Of those blind
people who are so caught up in themselves that they don’t see others
who are in need—and that includes both you and me—God says, “I do
not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you
evildoers!” How can God say He doesn’t know where we are from?
Well, the simple fact is that God cannot know where we are from
because we have wandered far away from where God placed us “In the
beginning” when God created each of us for gift. Where
we are from today bears no semblance to that place “In the
beginning” even though it feels “just like home.”
Jesus is not
teaching his disciples that it’s impossible to get into heaven.
But, he does say, along with the author of the Letter to the
Hebrews, that getting to heaven will take discipline.
Furthermore, the core of this effort should be to live each day as
God created us “In the beginning,” namely, for gift, and not
to be a stranger to God.
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HOMILY
