Pugnacious piggy was in a belligerent mood when he went up one day to visit his dear and faithful friend, Cathy the cow. As he poured out his complaints in an unending series of woes, the bottom line seemed to be: how ungrateful human beings can be – they extract everything they can from me, but don’t respect or reward me at all, not even with a good name! He even dared to compare himself with Cathy who was also very self-giving but earned proverbial respect from all. Why, she was treated almost like a goddess! No sooner had the pig completed his tale of woes than with a gentle swish of her tail Cathy retorted: ‘The one difference that I can see between the two of us is that I contribute most of what I give while I am still alive whereas all your contributions pour in only after you are dead. There is no soul in your giving! You give only what is of no use to you any more.’

Self-giving is the Best Giving
What wisdom in this retort of the holy cow! It isn’t as if the contributions of the pig in terms of pork, bacon, sausages and the rest are unimportant, but there is something praise-worthy to be said for contributions made when one is alive. The giving becomes almost a personal gesture of love. These seem to embody the ‘self-gift’ a lot more meaningfully than all that is given impersonally after death. Even among human beings, no one really appreciates a person who lives a thoroughly self-centred life all throughout his existence, but leaves a huge legacy to others after his death. Maybe we have seldom paid attention to the difference between ‘giving away’ and ‘sharing’. We generally give away what we do not need, something that is surplus or of not much use to us. This does not necessarily make the giving less valuable, because it can still benefit the receiver immensely. However, it is apparent that in such cases, even after giving away all that one chooses to give, one still remains self-sufficient, or basically untouched, as it were. The giver hasn’t given a ‘part of himself’ but something other than, or outside of himself.

Sharing, Not Giving-away
Contrast this with sharing. This term often seems to imply that the person doing the sharing has just enough for himself or a little more perhaps to spare, but out of that little he gives a portion to another who is in need. Both perhaps end up having a little less than they would have liked to possess, but the plus point here is the joy that is shared between them both. There is here evident a true self-giving, a giving of oneself to the other and this element brings about a greater and more lasting bond between the giver and receiver. Another important characteristic is that when giving away, the giver always remains a notch higher than the receiver. The recipient is somehow made to feel like a beggar, an indigent; his self-worth is not acknowledged or maybe even further demeaned. Whereas in sharing, the two remain on the same level of equality and the giver also receives from the one helped; he is humble enough to accept from the needy one. Thus, the dignity of the recipient is maintained or acknowledged – may be even heightened.

It is worth noting that when we come to the Eucharist we are told that Jesus took the bread, and having said the blessing, he broke it and gave it to his disciples to share among themselves. Jesus broke the bread and it is in and through a piece of broken bread that he gives us his eternal and marvelous presence. Most Christians seem to have missed this point altogether. For them Jesus is present in bread – which is not true at all. It is not bread as such, but broken bread that is the vehicle of Christ’s real presence to us today. Eucharist is bread broken to be shared. So, each Eucharist we celebrate inculcates in us this virtue of sharing our blessings with others.

True Christian Concern
The early Christians belonged mostly to the lower economic rung of society, though there were also several rich among them. When we are told in the Acts of the Apostles that these well-to-do Christians went and sold their houses and other property and gave the proceeds to the Apostles, we often conjure up the wrong picture in our minds. We imagine them selling each and every thing they possessed in order to help the needy. But a little deeper thought makes us realize that if they sold even the houses in which they lived, where would they themselves live then? It was obviously the extras, their holiday villas and bungalows that they sold; while they could make good use of these extra dwellings, they chose to surrender these for the benefit of their poorer brethren. Their gesture, in a sense, could be understood as a ‘giving away’ but what made the difference is that they brought the entire proceeds and handed it over to the Apostles who then distributed it to any who had need. In such a transaction, there isn’t much room for the Self to operate. Often the recipients wouldn’t even have known from whom the donation came and so the level of relationship in the community always remained one of equality. There was never a subtle seeking for gratitude, for acknowledgment, for return favours and so on – all of which are signs of self-seeking
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Jesus expressed all this very graphically when he advised his followers never to allow their left hand know what the right is doing. And if we are genuine as we look into ourselves when we choose to reach out to others, we realize how difficult it is to do this – to be totally bereft of all desire to be acknowledged, or noticed… even by the Lord. One effective way to catch oneself on this point is to check our reaction when we have gone out of our way to help another in need and the person just takes our kindness for granted – not a word of gratitude or appreciation comes our way. On the contrary, the next time s/he is in need, s/he comes and demands the help almost as if it were his/her right to receive. If we can keep calm and self-possessed in such circumstances and be ever ready to help this time too, that speaks of a fairly close assimilation unto Christ.

Give of Your-self Now
There is a particular area which we need to look at against the background of the wise comment of the Cow: ‘It is better to give of oneself while still alive rather than have others take what they can of our self or belongings after we die.’ It is not common in India for people to donate their bodily organs for the benefit of anyone in need – and yet what a fruitful and powerful gesture of self-giving this is – right in line with what Jesus himself did. “On the night before he suffered and died, he took the bread … take and eat, this is my body which is given for you!” Organ donation has to be done while one is still alive, (the intention of gifting organs cannot obviously be expressed after the person is dead!) and in the event of death, the donation is to be done as quickly as possible if at all the organ is to be any use to the recipient. How many lives could be saved or made more productive if more healthy people thought in terms of organ donation!

Are you like the cow or like the pig in this matter? Is there anything in your life or even in your possession that you could make good use of by donating it to someone in need – now, while you are still alive? Don’t wait till it is too late – for as St. Peter Julian Eymard said regarding his own departure from being a diocesan priest to enter religious life: ‘Tomorrow will be too late, indeed!'