A Gift for God- Reflections on Tobit Chap 13 (Br David Arulanatham)

Among the many skills I have acquired in my years of formation to the priesthood is one in my pastoral work. Whilst practicing pastoral charity I have to discern whether in whatever I am doing or responding to , ‘Am I responding from the need of the other or is it a projection of my own need”

Today in the Canticle of Tobit, the second psalm in our morning prayer we see the people in thanksgiving in experiencing liberation glorify God in these lines:

Many nations will come from afar
To the name of the Lord God,
bearing gifts in their hands,
gifts for the King of heaven.

The question that surfaced in my mind is what sort of gift or gifts God expects of us. As I reflected I recall the sacrifices of the old, in the Old Testament, specifically the animal offering that was supposed to be unblemished male simply meaning an animal that was healthy, strong and perfect.

I suppose today when we speak of gifts for the Lord our God then it has to be something that we should perceive to be his desire. His desire for us is to “be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48; Lev 19:2 – Be holy for I your God am Holy). As such our gift to give glory to God for all the goodness in us is a gift of our perfect self. A self-giving that is not one that distressed by the priests of Old Testament, the sacrifice of blind, crippled, lame and mutilated animals.

I suppose most of us are readily offering ourselves to God but how is our disposition, our true nature? Have we let go of our ego, and pride? Have we stopped being a ‘somebody’ to become a ‘nobody’, one who embraces docility and humility or are we striving to be powerful and mighty, all knowing or an intellectual glutton.

As much as God does not want us to be tired, worn out, exhausted, fatigued and over burdened God seeks us to be perfect and holy, whereby the people around us will see their God in us and will be inspired to enter into a relationship of intimacy with their God. Our gift will then be ‘a perfect instrument of God’ to bring others into that relationship of intimacy with God our Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let our prayer then be,
“Lord may your kingdom be proclaimed in me as I dedicate myself as a gift to you by my way of living. Empower me to change from within me so that I could be your light for the world.”


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Stay tuned for the next post by Bro Joseph Zhang on 7th Feb 2010.