awareness of giftedness . . . 3rd week thursday

In our first reading today we find David in prayer before God.  He come before the ark, sat before it and prayed expressing to God his gratitude for the promises God has made to him to build his house, that is, to establish a dynasty that would last forever.  Aware of his iniquities and weaknesses David was alarmed by this call - Who am I, Lord GOD, and who are the members of my house, that you have brought me to this point?  It is this humility of David and the acknowledgement of his guilt that would make him great.  And so he prayed Do, then, bless the house of your servant that it may be before you forever.

Yet David was also aware that this privilege, this generosity of God directed to him and his family is not actually for him or for his benefit but for the people of Israel to whom God made a covenant with Abraham. And so David said, "You have established for yourself your people Israel as yours forever, and you, LORD, have become their God."

The priesthood is not mine, I cannot claim the parish as my own even though I am assigned there.  I cannot claim you as my seminarians in the same way that I can never call this my seminary and claim it as my own.  Whatever is given to me is a gift yes but it is gift given to me so that it would benefit the people of God.  And so I should never use it for my own profit and personal gain.

Today let us more and more be aware of the giftedness that is in us and around us.  The food that we eat for example.  Today we have gathered more than a thousand sacks of palay from the parishes.  These are gifts of the people of God not because of a particular seminarian or priest, but because they believe in the necessity of our work here, they believe that the future church depends so much on what this seminary would produce.  The facilities that we use are gifts form God's people and from God himself, the time allotted for us is a gift from God, the resources that we use, the privileges that are ours, all these are gifts.  Like David let us ask God to make us more responsible for the gifts given us that despite our weakness God will fulfill the promises he made to his people that he will stand by them and provide them with holy and faithful shepherds, holy and faithful priests in the future.