Scripture: Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26;
Matthew 9:35-10:1.6-8

"The gift you have received, give as a gift!"

Did you know that our God is an infinite explosion of self-gift, that He is an outrageously generous gift-giver? He expects nothing in return. He is simply and completely gift to the one loved! The prophet Isaiah confirms this for us in today' s first reading when he proclaims that our God, giver of all gifts, will provide for our every need.

In the Gospel, Jesus, the master teacher, models gift giving for us. On entering the town, Jesus immediately becomes self-gift to others, curing them of every sickness and disease. Then, touched by the plight of the people, moved by their desperate situation and the lack of compassionate caregivers, He summons His disciples, gifts them, and sends them forth to be self-gift to others.

We, too, are called, gifted, and sent forth! Signed in Baptism, gifted by the Spirit, and sustained with Eucharist, we become, with these privileged gifts of grace, like Jesus, self-gift to others.

Father Michael Himes, priest and theologian, tells us that the sign of a genuine Christian is the ability not to gain things, but to give oneself away. I believe this is the deepest desire of the human heart — to give one's self away!

by Sr. Regina Wilson, IHM