generosity - bukas palad

A handshake is done with the right hand clasping the right hand of the other and shaking it up and down as a greeting. Actually the handshake originated several thousands of years ago probably in the Middle East. It is given as a sign that one comes in peace. The right hand is the hand that holds the weapon and offering a handshake is like saying, look I have no weapon in my hand, I come in peace.
The hands-up gesture is a later elaboration probably because a left-handed person came to shake the hands of an enemy with his right hand only to kill the other with a concealed weapon with his left hand. The latter is just a conjecture. But it sure does show what surrender and coming in peace means. With the right hand open or with both hands up in the air it means that the person is at the disposal of the other. With both hands seen, one is left defenseless and is therefore under the control of the other.


The consequence of the gesture of surrender has the same connotation with the gesture of total generosity especially in the Filipino language. Generosity means bukas palad. The giving of oneself in marriage in orginal hiligaynon is not kasal but tambi palad – two hands clasped together in mutual generosity. Likewise selfishness, the opposite of generosity is again described by the position of the palm with the hiligaynon term kuom. In the English language an open hand is the gesture of generosity while a clenched fist means hostility – a sign that one does not wish to consider the other.
It is in these various positions of the hands that I would like to reflect with you what generosity involves – the generosity exemplified today by two women, two widows.

What is real generosity? Real generosity is recklessness. Recklessness has an element of thoughtlessness in it and even some degree of carelessness. This is especially exemplified by the widow in the temple in our gospel today. She has only two small coins left. One should have already felt shocked at the fact that she would even think of contributing to the temple despite her poverty. But one must have been shaken to see that she had just contributed not one but two, the last two coins she had. She gave everything. That was reckless of her, she was thoughtless. When she was dropping those last two coins what was she thinking, what thoughts crossed her mind. We have no way of knowing. Perhaps she closed her eyes. Perhaps while she was doing so she was also fighting her fears of the morrow. Perhaps so many insecurities came up before her. Like the widow of Zarepath in our first reading who thought of eating the last morsel of food with her son and waiting for death afterwards, the widow in the gospel may have also been deeply disturbed. But going against logic, going against her need to survive, going against convention of saving things for oneself, she recklessly, thoughtlessly, and carelessly dropped her last two coins in the temple box.
Generosity involves a certain recklessness. In giving up her last two coins she is giving up control over her life. It was not just giving, it was not making contributions, it was surrendering, a total entrustment – a handshake perhaps, a hands-up even. No generosity is not about money. It is not about making a contribution to a worthy cause. There is still a deeper cause why people are really generous. There is still a deeper reason why people give. And this deeper reason, this deeper cause is what is the more important lesson in our readings today – to form in us a proper disposition, the proper attitude of the heart that makes one willing to give everything for God and for the other. Look into that – because that is more important than just giving and making contributions.
I have compared generosity with the gesture of a handshake and a hands-up because generosity is rooted in surrender, when we have come to relinquish control, when we have entrusted our past, present and future to God, when we have acknowledged that God is really the God of our life. I believe there is no other deeper cause and deeper reason for it. When we have formed this intimacy with God, this deep faith and strong trust in God, generosity will just follow.