GENEROSITY

I went home to our hometown last Friday to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I was excited and hoped many good things to happen. I was honestly expecting a simple, smooth and organized festivity. However, I was shocked to see a lot of people who came to our house, people who were strangers to us. Mothers bringing three to five small kids from different barangays and sitios. Morefully, I was shocked to see that I can't almost get inside our house since the floor area was occupied by many kids with thier parents who were squating down and eating with their plates placed on the floor. I have to walk with my toes up to avoid stepping on rice particles scattered around. I also saw people opening the refregerator getting stuffs like soft drinks or desserts without having to wait for the servers to do that for them, drunkards asking for hard liquor even if wine was not included in our preparation, distant relatives knocking very late at night bringing along family members even if they had been in the house since breakfast till dinner and even if they were given bring home food and those people who elbows others just to be the first to get the food.

Fifteen years ago the feast celebration at home wasn't that way worst. It was smooth , systematic and non-chaotic. Only invited guests and relatives come to our house and join the celebration. Shall i label those people who came to our party and showed indescent demeanor as "greedy" , "gluttons" or "beast". Or are people now adays experiencing too much hunger that expecting them to eat like they have not eaten a month is normal?. I really do not know the answer. How i wish i did not go home last friday and just had attended holy mass here in the city in honor of Mama Mary because I feel that I was committing a sin trying to criticize the situation and the people involved. Fiesta is not really about eating its about honoring the saint through participating the celebration in the spirit of love, respect and deep faith. It is very difficult to say that those actions were normal for non professional people because there were oridnary people who behave decently and who have good manners during that party.

Feed the hungry but feed those who are really human beings. I just hope that I am not the stingy host who complains without valid justifications. Despite such I am opening my heart for more understanding and more answers as I know I might have misunderstood the situation and could not emphatize with them. Perhaps I was just tested on the virture of generosity. They say that real generosity is when you already experienced pain upon giving but the pain I experienced wasn't really about the food that the people consumed but rather on thier attitude they showed that i could hardly take.