Your choice, your call

The story is told about three drinking buddies who were sharing about their drinking habits. The first one said: “I drink whisky without water.” The second one said: “I drink whisky with water.” And the third one said: “Me? I drink whisky like water!”

In today’s Gospel (Lk. 6, 27-38), Jesus tells His disciples to choose how they want to live their lives, i.e., to live with greed, or to live with love. Let us look into our hearts today: Am I a giving person, or am I a getting person? Am I a giver or a taker?

If you are a giver, please check the quantity of your giving. As it were, do you give sparingly, just enough and never beyond your comfort  zone? Do you know what “give until it hurts” means?

More than the quantity, please check the quality of your giving. Do you give generously, without expecting anything in return? Do you give with kindness and mercy, or is your giving accompanied with harshness, pride and arrogance? Do you give condescendingly, or worse, is your giving just a show for others to see, to earn praise and admiration? Is your giving true? Is your giving sincere? Or is your giving all about you?

True giving does not expect anything in return. And so it is that there are people who give, keeping a list of all they had given, and expecting recompense in return. Worse, their giving is laced with entitlement and reward issues. Theirs is the kind of giving with strings, lots of strings attached. Are you a person who gives with a hidden agenda?

Elections are coming again. Let us be careful of people who give  us a lot of promises just to get our votes. Let us doubly be careful of candidates who give us money or favors to buy our votes. Once in power, they will steal from us the money they gave us, and will continue to steal from us much, much more, for a long, long time.

We all have still so much to learn about true giving, along with true forgiving and true thanksgiving. The world will never know, nor does it need to know the quantity and the quality of our giving, but the bottom line is what the Lord tells us today: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” In other words, it’s your choice, your call.

By the way, one important measure of giving is that of giving NOW. Let us not neglect, defer or postpone our giving. One other important measure is that of giving MORE. So, give now, and give more, and you won’t regret it.

The happiest people I have met are the people who are giving and self-effacing. On the other hand, the most miserable and “difficult” people I have met are those who are so full of themselves, who knowingly or unknowingly think that the world revolves around them.

We all will face our Creator someday. When that time comes, may we have little or no regrets that we loved too little, too late. We have no one to blame but ourselves if we face our Creator then in fear and in shame. Remember, it’s your choice, your call, all along.

Looking forward to our grand homecoming at the Bani East Elementary School this Sunday.

Life was difficult when we were growing up in Bani, Pangasinan, with no electricity and dusty roads all over. But one thing that our parents and teachers taught us then were the values of hard work, honesty, generosity and belief in the Almighty.

Think about this: “Kindness may just be a small gesture but it is powerful. It blesses the one who receives it and the one who gives it. It warms the heart, and makes the heavenly Father smile above.”

A moment with the Lord:

Lord, help us not to miss our choice, our call to be giving and loving persons. Amen.

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