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by Dina Balicanot Mk. 12:38-44 
I had an interesting evening early this week when I shopped in a supermarket near where I live. Upon entrance, I saw this promo savers area where they feature products at reduced prices.
Nothing much excited me, except for my favorite imported potato chips which were available for "Buy 1 take 1." Ah, my comfort food! Definitely a good buy so I took what seemed to be the last stock on display (lucky me!).
An hour later at the payment counter, a middle aged woman cheerfully engaged in a phone call caught my attention. The four girls of different ages (12, 9, 7 and 4 maybe) hanging around their grocery cart (as if guarding the ones they must have especially gotten for themselves) must be her daughters. Next minute, I thought I overheard the eldest whispering to her mother as if there's something else she wanted to buy from the supermarket.
Then, again I thought I saw them nonverbally referring to the item I was holding (a pack of two bags of the potato chips). Just shrugged it off, I must be hallucinating or just overly presumptuous that day.
Then the eldest daughter went back inside to get that 'last minute' wish item. The mother walked away (maybe for an errand) from the counter, leaving the three other girls on their own.
Looking trained and composed, how they took turns (like clockwork!) in handling the items for punching genuinely amused me. I thought it was very efficient of them, grouping the products, i.e., meat and poultry, vegetables, canned goods, toiletries, etc.
Such thoughtful concern certainly made things easier for the cashier and bagger. I thought aloud. They were raised well. They will grow up, and become gracious, too, like their mother.
In a while, the mom was back and so was the eldest daughter holding a single pack of the same brand of potato chips (my sensors were right!). I instantly felt bad. Oh, no, she must have searched around the whole supermarket and found nothing. At that point. the mother finally made contact and asked me, "Miss, where did you get the item?" I told them softly, "I am afraid I got the last pack."
Then, suddenly, a great thought lit up my mind! "Common, Dina, give that last pack to these kids. You don't need or desire them more than they do!" I felt motionless and paralyzed for what it seemed like a lifetime, trying to translate such noble thought into action.
But then again, a faint voice was talking to me at the same time, "Those bags of chips are rightfully yours!" Next thing I knew, they were done paying, and gone.
And so was that most beautiful chance I had to make a generous act. To give out of pure desire to fulfill someone's simple wish.
I went home dejectedly. Like my usual nightly homecomings, my dear nieces hovered around me for their pasalubongs. Strangely, the air that evening seemed heavy. When the kids have gone to sleep, I sat still on my own and watched late news.
Reluctantly, I reached for the controversial bag of chips, slashed it open and munched a few. It's like eating pulp, bland, dry and tasteless. I really felt like kicking myself. I sincerely regretted my indecisiveness earlier that evening at the supermarket. Kindness without putting it to action amounts to nothing.
As brightly demonstrated by the generous widow in our Gospel today, true giving is not giving in excess. The essence of giving is practically losing or foregoing what we have originally intended for ourselves.
The best ones, the stuff that anyone would like to have for themselves.
The nugget lesson of this story: If that extraordinary surge of generosity comes to us, act on it as fast as we can before it gets blown away by our natural tendency to always think of ourselves first.
Friends, it is guaranteed victory of the greatest kind.
Prayer:
O Lord, our God who is Most Generous, help us discover the sweetness of giving. May we embrace giving as a way of life! Amen. |
