In Giving We Receive

I often find it easy to go through the motions of things and think I’m getting somewhere that I’m not. With ‘practicing’ my faith, I find it so easy to be complacent sometimes, thinking I’m on track if I’m participating in Mass and praying. And not to knock these things – they’re important, can be very centering and can help me find God along the way, sometimes when I feel very alone.

However, today’s Psalm also reminds me that it’s not the full living of a Christian life to just mouth the words. “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” While this is telling us that God is listening to us always, wanting and waiting to help, it also reminds me that one of the ways this happens is through how we serve and help one another. Since this blog started as my friend’s Lenten journey, it really makes me think about how this past Lent, I had a lack of a journey. In previous years, I’d often tried to do something positive for Lent rather than giving something up – for me, it was a way to remind myself that it is in how we live our lives that we live our faith – a sacrifice of time perhaps, to do some small thing. And I’ve experienced some really good things in life through that, some of which carried on past Lent. But this year, I didn’t manage it, and while the recalling of the Passion and Resurrection never fail to stir some understanding of the depth of God’s love for humanity, I still felt empty – God was showing up, but I wasn’t.

It was only this past weekend, when I was given the gift of someone’s time and presence completely selflessly, without asking and without request for something in return, that I realized how long it’s been since I’ve given of myself in the same way, and how empty I am without that. It was joyous to feel so loved, and I pray that I can remember more often to give of myself to others that way, too.