by Mike James, member of the CCSJ
Catholics as well as other citizens of all different religious persuasions are outstanding for their generosity in giving and sharing with the less privileged and less fortunate during this period of Advent and preparation for Christmas.
Thousands of hampers are being prepared for the needy in parishes, groups and service organisations during the season. A major traffic jam took place one weekend in front of a popular TV station caused by persons trying to drop off toys to be donated to children who do not have the normal Santa Claus to look forward to. Many Christmas lunch and dinner tickets will be bought and gladly donated to those who cannot afford the contribution. Orphanages and homes for the elderly will receive a steady stream of donated food and other gifts.
Giving and sharing with those in need at Christmas is rightly seen as a fundamental response in gratitude to the Lord of all Creation who gave his Son in unimaginable love and total giving to us all, starting in the humble stable of Bethlehem.
The witness of Christmas and of the child in the stable of Bethlehem, however, is much more than the giving of things, however generously.
Occasionally, the TV cameras panning across a crowd at US basketball or other sports event over the season will pause for a moment on someone with a simple placard that says simply “John 3:16” an invitation to the curious to look up the reference from the Gospel of St John, which in fact reads: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Christmas means, not only God giving, but God giving himself, his one and only Son. It means not only our giving, but our giving ourselves.
At a recent retreat for the Permanent Deacons and their wives, Coadjutor Archbishop Harris cited a parent who shared with him that the greatest beneficiaries of the yearly visit by the family to a home for physically and mentally challenged children are the children of the visiting family who gain so much from their interaction with others so grateful for the little they have. He invited the deacons to spend at least three hours a month visiting and listening to patients of all faiths or none in public hospitals and on such occasions not hesitating to identify themselves as Roman Catholic deacons.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive”, St Paul reminds the leaders in early Christian community at Ephesus that Jesus himself said this (Acts. 20:35). But the example of Jesus himself shows us that it is even more blessed (and much more difficult) to give of oneself than to give things. Our time is so much more valuable than our money. Witness how people will gladly exchange their fortune for recovery from ill health to gain a few more years of life.
The Season of Advent, the season of preparing for the coming of the Lord, the season for giving to those in need, is also the season of invitation for us to give of our time, our attention, our respect, our selves to Christ in others. One definition of charity is giving things to others in need. Another definition of charity adds giving our time, our respect, our attention, ourselves in love, service and justice. As Christ did and does for us, and as he invites us to do like Him.
