Receiving the Gift

A transformed consciousness that fully appreciates God’s graciousness will receive the gift of faith with a joyful heart. One need only recall how this precious gift has been given and received. One could ask: Why of the four billion people in Asia have I been privileged to receive the gift of Christian faith? Who were God's instruments in transmitting the gift to me? What price did my parents or the missionaries have to pay so that I would have this great treasure? Who are the holy people in my life who have helped me appreciate God’s gifts? Reflecting on these questions will facilitate a more personal reception of God's gifts of grace.

When Jesus engages the Samaritan woman at the well, he challenges her to have a deeper appreciation of the gift being offered: “If you only knew the gift God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water” an 4:10).

Writing to the Corinthians, Paul invites them to a more profound awareness of the gift of being a Christian; he says: “People must think of us as Christ's servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God. What is expected of stewards is that each one should be found worthy of his trust... What do you have that was not given to you? And if it was given, how can you boast as though it were not?” (1Co 4:1-2,7).

Both the Samaritan woman and the Corinthian community are to appreciate that, since they have been recipients of God’s gifts, they themselves are now able to be gifts to others. Precisely because one is loved, has experienced God's love, and has thus become lovable, one can reach out to others with the gift of love. This is the transformed consciousness that God’s gifting creates in receptive individuals. One is reminded of what the Asian bishops have said: “Without a personal experience of this love received as gift and mercy, no sense of mission can flourish” (FABC V).

A deep reception of God’s Trinitarian gifting will result in a further gift: a personal vocation to ministry. This was the “conversion” experience of St. Paul; the Lord affirmed: “This man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel” (Ac 9: 15). Paul personally owns this gift: “I have been made the servant of that gospel by a gift of grace from God who gave it to me by his own power” (Ep 3:7). Paul celebrates God’s choice, noting that: “God never takes back his gift or revokes his choice” (Rm 11:29).

Reception of God’s gift is a continuous, ongoing process. Paul reminds his beloved Timothy (and us) to keep growing in receptiveness (appreciation, personalization, appropriation) of God’s gift: “You have in you a spiritual gift which was given to you when the prophets spoke and the body of elders laid their hands on you; do not let it lie unused. Think hard about all this, and put it into practice” (1 Tm 4: 14-15).

Reciprocating God's Gift

The New Testament passage that best captures this third moment of gift missiology is: “What you have received as a gift, give as a gift” (Mt 10:8). The logic is simple: if one truly appreciates a gift, one wishes to share it with others. The desire to gift others is the best and clearest manifestation of authentic gratitude.

The New Testament letters of James and Peter add further insight: “Make no mistake about this, my dear brothers: every good gift, everything that is perfect, is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light” Om 1:16-17). “Each of you has received a special gift, so like good stewards responsible for all these different graces of God, put yourselves at the service of others... so that in everything God may receive the glory” (1 P 4:10-11)

Pope John Paul II’s 1999 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Asia (EA) provides several insightful perspectives on how the church in Asia is to “reciprocate” (return, repay) the gifts it has received. “The church’s faith in Jesus is a gift received and a gift to be shared; it is the greatest gift which the church can offer to Asia” (EA 10b).

“Blessed with the gift of faith, the church [is to become] a community aflame with missionary zeal to make Jesus known, loved, and followed... The great question now facing the church in Asia is how to share with our Asian brothers and sisters what we treasure as the gift containing all gifts, namely, the Good News of Jesus Christ” (EA  19a & c). “Only if the people of God recognize the gift that is theirs in Christ will they be able to communicate that gift to others through proclamation and dialogue” (EA 31 f).

The perspective of “mission as gift” contains several insights on the approach or manner of mission in Asia, which is necessarily dialogue. Christians treasure the gift of their trinitarian faith, offering it freely, even enthusiastically, to others. The gift is offered with a sincere heart, yet all evangelizers know that people are free to accept or reject the gift. The dialogue partners, such as Muslims and Buddhists, also have gifts to offer: the riches of their faith and their personal “God experience.” Thus, a wonderful exchange of gifts can result. All people who have the gift of faith need to collaborate so that through sharing their gifts they can enrich the poor and needy in their midst.

The Asian bishops were indeed most perceptive in their reflection on a renewed motivation for mission, listing gratitude first among several possible motives. Recall what they said: “We evangelize, first of all, from a deep sense of gratitude to God… Mission is above all else an overflow of this life from grateful hearts transformed by the grace of God... Without a personal experience of this life received as gift and mercy, no sense of mission can flourish” (FABC V).

Paul’s well-worded exhortation to his co-evangelizer Timothy provides a fitting conclusion for these reflections on the gift of mission (gift missiology). In Paul’s words, Christians can find a reprise of their recognition, reception, and reciprocation of the gift of faith. Paul writes: “Fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you… Never be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord… Bear hardships for the sake of the Good News… Accept the strength that comes from the grace of Christ Jesus… Proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it… Do all with patience… Make the preaching of the Good News your life’s work, in thoroughgoing service” (2 Tm 1 :6, 8-9a; 2:1; 4:1,5).

Mary Keeping Shabbat

There would be nearly nine months ahead
Of seventh-day worship in synagogue,
Sitting with her sisters and her mother
In the women's rows, opposite the minyun
Of their men, her secret blossoming within her,
Thrusting against the homespun of her gown.
She hugged its warm folds, the warm hand
Of her mother covering her own. For Jews
Seeking signs to believe in, or to disbelieve,
The signs were there every Shabbat – seventh
Month, eighth-month – that a daughter of righteous
Parents was boldly with child, Her Joseph betrayed!
Her betrayer someone here among us! Watch where
She turns her eyes. But she only turns her eyes
To heaven, while saying her Shabbat prayers,
Singing the Shabbat psalms, a bright-haired
Mary, keeping Sunday in her womb.

Nancy G. Westerfield