“Regifting” has a poor connotation. That mug full of candy? Eat the chocolates, and pass on the mug—with or without the treats intact—to someone else. That scented candle? It’s a good contender for a Secret Santa you don’t know well. And white elephant parties and regifting go hand in hand.
But what if we look at the action more positively? The intangible gifts we possess were given by God for us to use. We regift, then, every time we share our gifts. The idea, suggested by Tom Krettek, SJ, in The Mass, the Eucharist, and the Spiritual Exercises, grabbed my attention. “What are the gifts you have received?” he asks. “Have you been regifting them?”
If an artist doesn’t share his painting or a writer her words, or if a musician never plays the instrument or a carpenter never builds, that’s the manifestation of “holding your light under a bushel.” The flame goes out, and no one benefits.
But when we see a Goya, da Vinci, or Kandinsky, we’ve seen something that grabs our notice. When we read Jane Austen or novels by the Brontë sisters, we can be entertained and moved. A symphony orchestra or favorite band plays, and the audience is transported. And even the less-visible share their gifts with quiet dignity—from your neighbor down the street to a cousin across the country or a carpenter from Nazareth named Joseph.
Sharing our talents—regifting them—amplifies them. We all have varied gifts. Think how much lighter the world would be if we all shared these presents from God in creative ways.
Ultimately, Krettek’s questions are a shortcut way of remembering the Contemplation to Attain the Love of God, the concluding meditation of the Spiritual Exercises. We recognize all the gifts with which God has blessed us, and then our response is to consider how to use or pass along those gifts generously. That is regifting in the best sense.
So get the metaphorical wrapping paper ready, and regift one of your gifts this week. Anybody hosting a white elephant party soon?
