Some
Thoughts on the Liturgy
GIVING
TO OTHERS
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This is a difficult Gospel
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if one takes it as the words say, it is so difficult and
radical that it is like a different plane of living,
like an alternate world of Star Trek or a novel
involving Harry Potter
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but Jesus is very clear—we can argue what are Jesus’
actual words
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but there is no doubt that Jesus was responsible for
these ideas
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if we are going to follow him, we will have to follow
these directives
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love your enemies
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love those who do not love you
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be compassionate to all
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do not judge or condemn, but pardon
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because, as Jesus says,
…the
measure with which you measure will in return be
measured out to you.
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The liturgy uses the story of David to introduce the
idea of being good to others
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and giving to Saul even though Saul wanted to kill David
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I love this story.
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a woman waiting to board an airplane, was reading her
newspaper. Earlier she had purchased a small package of
Oreo cookies in the snack shop; her plan was to eat them
on the plane
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out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a man next to
her eating an Oreo cookie
she
looked down at the package beside her, and the man had
actually opened her
package
of Oreo cookies and started eating
she
could not believe the nerve of this guy.
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now, of course, what she should have done at this point
is talk to the guy
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why did you take my cookies, do you not think it is
impolite, and so forth. - no, we human beings do not
work that way
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she figured if she took a couple of the cookies, he
would see that they were really hers and stop eating
them, apologize, probably offer to pay for them, and
life would be okay again
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so she did that, took a couple of the cookies, but he
continued to eat from the remainder
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well, she was incensed: she grabbed all but one of the
cookies and put them in her pocket
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the guy took the one cookie that was left, but he broke
it in two pieces, ate one half and left the other half
for her
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the woman was furious; she grabbed the whole package
with the left over one-half Oreo cookie, shoved them in
her purse, and was ready to leave in a huff
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but as she shoved them in her purse, she found much to
her absolute shame, her own unopened package of Oreo
cookies.
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it was not her package of cookies at all that the man
was eating
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she had thought that she had placed her cookies in the
seat, but she had actually placed them in her purse
instead
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the man was eating his own Oreo cookies
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she had judged that he was eating hers
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but even at that, the man had offered his package to her
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The point must be made
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even if people are as rude as she thought the man was,
Jesus says to love them, that we do not get back at
them, that we share our cookies with them, even if they
would take them from us anyway
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it is difficult, really difficult to do
As
we think on that, I think that we are discovering a
fundamental of good living. I think Jesus’ idea of
giving
is
the basis. Jesus says in today’s Gospel:
Give
to everyone who asks of you.
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“Giving to others” more than any concept captures
the reality of Jesus’s moral doctrine
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it is the essential ingredient of love, and it is also
one of the most difficult concepts for us to understand
and put into practice
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In fact, giving is perhaps the essential concept of
Christianity;
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it is what guides the Christian way of life
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it is what you and I as Christians have heard presented
as stewardship—giving
back to God for what God has given to us
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if we honestly believe that God has given life to us,
the next step will automatically follow, namely, that we
will give back to God by giving of ourselves to what the
Lord says to us, even the more difficult doctrines as we
heard today
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As a conclusion to this thought, here is an interesting
fact:
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it has been proven that human babies do not distinguish
between their own distress and that of others
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if you are in a situation where there are many babies,
if one cries, more often than not, for no other reason
other than the fact that one is crying, the rest of them
will cry—
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almost like a statement of support and giving of self
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Maybe that is something to think about:
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in our lives we learn to give on behalf of others, no
matter who they are. That is a pretty good ideal to
learn.
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we may even want to share our cookies with everyone.
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