Sharing . . . sort of

My three year old daughter, Isabelle, is learning the art of sharing. We try to make a big deal about it when she offers to take turns at the playground, or shares her crackers with a playmate. Recently she’s taken sharing to a whole new level . . . just not in the right direction. This morning I prepared our usual Wednesday morning breakfast for Isabelle and Annaleigh (our one year old)–strawberries and cheese (my wife thinks this is an odd breakfast, but I disagree and digress).

“Here you go, girls, strawberries and cheese.”
“Daddy, I don’t want cheese”
“But this is your breakfast, honey, strawberries and cheese.”
“But Daddy, I don’t want cheese.”
THIS IS YOUR BREAKFAST
DADDY, I DON’T WANT CHEESE

After a few moments I turn to make my own breakfast, Total cereal with a half cup of Fiber One (sometiems Weight Watchers is a drag). With my back turned, I hear, “Daddy, I share with her!” I rejoin the table to see that Annaleigh now has a large lump of cheese in the middle of her plate.

Yes, it’s sharing, but it certainly misses the point. I find that some things don’t change when we get older. How often in the Church, when we go out into the world to provide for our brothers and sisters in need, do we simply get rid of the old, broken, distasteful things in our lives. Sharing is hard enough in our consumer-centric lives, without confusing charity with spring cleaning. The perversion would be to stop sharing all together. Likewise, buying new things for others seems to also be missing the point. It’s time that we take recycling seriously, not cans, bottles, and newspapers (though these items as well), but taking the old, reinventing it, and sharing it to those in need.

Not giving it, but sharing it, which takes much more intentionality and Christian hospitality. Like my friend at the Benedictine Monistary says, “The monk with the keys is a happy monk.” They don’t take a vow of poverty, but they do vow to share what they have, all that they have, with all who are in need.

So, before cleaning out your garage and giving all of your unwanted stuff to the poor so that you can buy all new stuff, maybe we are called to open our homes and our lives to those in need so that we might share the good news and the good things of our lives.

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