Everything Is a Gift – So Live as a Giver

14th Week in Ordinary Time – Thursday

Genesis 44:18 21. Matthew 10:7, 15

Everything Is a Gift – So Live as a Giver

• Life is not something we control or possess.
• Life is a gift.
• And gifts are meant to be shared.

Jesus sends out the apostles with authority to heal and to proclaim the Kingdom. But He reminds them first: “Freely you have received; freely give.”

The mission, the message, even the joy they carry—none of it is their own.

It is all grace. So the only fitting response is generosity.

In the First Reading, Joseph could have chosen revenge. He had been betrayed, abandoned, falsely accused. Yet when he stands before the very brothers who sold him, he sees not his pain, but God’s purpose:

“God sent me ahead of you to preserve life.”

• Joseph does not cling to the past.
• He does not say, I was sold.
• He says, I was sent.

One word changes everything. Faith transforms suffering into mission. Gifted people become giving people.

So, what do we see when we look at our own lives? If everything looks like a burden, we become victims.

• If everything looks like a gift, we become blessings.
• If time is a gift, we give it freely.
• If talents are a gift, we use them joyfully.
• If ministry is a gift, we serve humbly.

Let us pray to see with Joseph’s eyes and love with Christ’s heart— because everything we have is a gift, and the most beautiful way to keep a gift is to give it away with love.

The New comfort

A New Comfort

“Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick do.”

Vocation of Matthew

Giving comfort or consolation is a basic emotional need of human beings. 

I share here my experience of giving communion to the blind woman at San Roque every Sunday. She wants to be touched and give the blessing prayer. Then only she gets satisfied. One day it was raining. She became upset.  

People need comfort because it helps them cope with the daily routine of pain, stress, and sadness. 

In today’s Gospel, Matthew received comfort from Jesus who was passing by the custom's office. His work involved collecting customs duties from travelers, traders, and farmers, often taxing goods entering the land. To secure this position, he would have paid an advance to the Roman authorities and then collected taxes in excess to recover his payment and earn a profit. It was a despised profession.

Despite having a job, income, and Roman connections, Matthew seems inwardly empty. The people’s hatred, the burden of dishonesty, and the weariness of his soul left him comfortless. But when Jesus calls him, he responds immediately, as if he had been waiting for this very day. He rises and follows. And not only that—he throws a banquet to celebrate the call. He receives a new comfort in Jesus.

In the first reading, Isaac lost his mother, and Abraham purchases land to bury her—the first portion of the Promised Land that becomes his. Isaac grows up quickly. Abraham, now aged, commissions his servant to find a wife for Isaac from his own kin. The servant succeeds and brings Rebekah. Isaac receives her into his mother’s tent and marries her. The text simply says, “Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”

How many sons of Abraham? Not only Isaac, also Ismael, but he was born not to Sarah, but Hagar. But Sarah’s death really disturbed isaac. because he was the only son. 

A deeper reading suggests that Isaac likely carried trauma after witnessing his father prepare to sacrifice him. His bond with his mother, Sarah, may have deepened after that event. Hence, her death left him inconsolable—especially in his own home, where loneliness cuts deepest. He finds that lost comfort in Rebekah.

Isaac, consoled in the midst of personal loss. Matthew, consoled in the midst of social shame. Whether through people or directly through God, true comfort always has a divine touch.

So, what sorrow or discouragement in your life today seems unbearable or unhealed?

The Lord Himself is coming toward you as your new comfort.

Our part is simple:

Be like Isaac—go out into the field and wait.

Be like Matthew—be present at your duty, and invite Jesus at your party. 

When comfort is given, share it with others.

Jesus, in turn, defines His mission: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

And then He makes this powerful statement: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

What does that mean?

Sacrifice is rooted in the past—we offer atonement for sins already committed. Mercy, however, is rooted in the present. The Good Samaritan didn’t ask how the man ended up on the road. He simply saw his present suffering and responded with compassion.

When we meet people, do we view them through the eyes of their past? Or do we look at them through the mercy of the present? To comfort someone, to see them as God sees them, is the beginning of true healing

Thomas, the Apostle

Today, with joy, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, known as the Apostle of India. (In India, all the dioceses celebrate the solemnity. You are familiar with India, the cradle of diverse cultures, languages, and ancient religions. We, Catholics, have only a history of 2,000 years. But the Rig Veda and the Sanskrit language date back before 5,000 years.  

It is actually a profound thought to consider that, through Thomas, our ancestors reached out their hands to touch the wounds of Christ, placing their fingers in His hands and their hands into His side. Saint Thomas is the living link between Jesus Christ and our Indian soil.

After Jesus’ death, the Apostles respond in three ways: Some remain behind locked doors, fearing the Jews, afraid of being punished themselves. Some return to Galilee, to their native places and former occupations, especially fishing. But Thomas chooses a third path: walking among the people, living as one with them.

3 lessons from Thomas' life:

(a) Asking Questions Is Good: In both John’s Gospel and the Gospel of Thomas, Thomas dares to ask what others might silently wonder. In apocryphal writings like the Gospel of Thomas, which is not part of the canonical Bible but offers intriguing insights, Thomas is called Didymus Judas Thomas. The name Didymus means "twin," and scholars have explored its possible etymological origins. Questioning is part of deepening our faith. It is not a lack of belief, but a hunger for truth. 

Again, after the Last Supper, during Jesus’ farewell discourse, it is Thomas who asks, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?” (John 14:5). The disciples tell Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas, however, responds without even naming Jesus—simply “unless I see the mark of the nails…” But the moment Jesus appears and says, “See My hands,” Thomas surrenders.

b) Personal Faith:  Who is the great teacher? AI or human teachers? People say we do not need any more teachers. AI can teach everything, but it does not teach by experience, emotional and contextual references. Thomas wants to experience personal faith in Christ. Without waiting, he confesses: “My Lord and my God!” This is the most personal and profound confession of faith in the Gospels.

Thomas’ journey teaches us that faith must be personal. We cannot live off others’ spiritual experiences—not even those of our founders and parents. We should cultivate our own personal experience of a relationship with Christ. Like Thomas, we must encounter Christ ourselves. And that encounter, while not always sensible or visible, is no less real.

(c) Be  God's pilgrim: Francis Xavier, who came to India, Goa, in the 15th century, narrates about the incredible challenges in the evangelization; the persecution of the emperors, inability to communicate, and even the pandemics. Thomas went to India before 15 centuries. You imagine the challenges of evangelization in India. 

According to tradition, Thomas was killed by the emperor of Mylapore; he was killed by a spear/sword to his chest, the proper place where he touched the Lord. He carried the same wounds of the Lord.