Day 7 Simbang Gabi: 22 December

Generous Givers

Luke 1:46-56

We are generous offerings of the Lord to proclaim the mercy of God that shows his power for the hungry and the lowly.

As we come closer to Jesus, our real Christmas gift, this is the best time to consider ourselves as Christmas gifts of Christ to others.  And a compelling quality by which we are molded to be worthy Christmas gifts is to be imbued with the gift of generous giving.

As Jesus is the overly generous giver who causes our salvation, must we still say no to generosity?  Our lives are pure gifts; so are all our blessings.  A way to witness the saving mercy of God is to be generous with our time, talent, and treasure, which all came from God.  In generosity we have received, in generosity we also give.

Our second model is Mary, who also gave herself totally at the service of God.  Her Fiat opened our salvation.  Her Magnificat contains the generosity of God in her life; first, he chose a lowly woman to be the mother of God.  Second, God's generosity is shown in how he cares for the hungry and the lowly, while the powerful and the rich he leaves with nothing.

If we start being generous to God, He cannot be outdone in generosity.  Let us start offering even a tithe of our time, talent and treasure to do His work here on earth.  Remember, those who have will be given more, while those who have not, even the little they have will be taken away from them.