Imagine a scene in which you are leaving a grocery store and the bottom of your bag rips open, and the contents spill out onto the sidewalk. Several people offer to help retrieve the canned vegetables rolling down the sidewalk, but instinctively, you refuse their help.

Or, after the first snow, your neighbor with the new snowblower asks if she can clear your sidewalk, and you refuse the offer, maybe with the excuse, “Oh, thanks, but I need the exercise,” even though shoveling snow is the last thing on the list of ways to stay in shape.

Why is it that we are sometimes averse to accepting offers of help? Is it that we dread the thought of being in debt to someone? Or, that we will now owe them a favor, and who knows when they will ask for it? Do we think that accepting someone’s offer to assist is a sign of weakness? That we are fragile and in need of help?

The Reading and the Gospel touch on this very topic.

In Romans, Paul reminds us that the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable, and equally as important, who has given him anything that he may be repaid?

Knowing that the gifts and call from God are there for the proverbial taking, why are we so reluctant to call on God for help? Hopefully, it is not because we don’t want to be in debt to someone else, or that we will appear weak.

The refrain to a popular Country Western song sums it up:

I only talk to God when I need a favor. And I only pray when I ain't got a prayer. So, who the hell am I, who the hell am I, to expect a Savior, oh, if I only talk to God when I need a favor? But God, I need a favor.

Maybe if we were better in sharing our gratitude for all of God’s gifts bestowed on us each day, from the morning sun to the random acts of kindness from others, we might be more comfortable asking for help when we are in need. Let’s not let our innate reluctance to show weakness or fear of being in debt prevent us from being in a conversation with the one whose love and gifts are unending.

By the same token, Luke reminds us that the help we offer to others should be extended without expectation of repayment. What we do to help, especially the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

As we do our Daily Examen and give thanks, let us focus more on prayers of gratitude for all of God’s irrevocable gifts, and less on praying only when we need a favor. And let us remember to give freely of our time, talent, and treasure without counting the cost or expecting anything in return.

The gifts we receive from others might well be God working through that person and for our benefit, or for the benefit of those we, in turn, will aid through our actions.