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Today is the day in the Christian calendar called the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the moment when the three wise men visited the Christ child. We know little about them – Matthew’s gospel doesn’t even give them names – but what was recorded was that they brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Not exactly suitable for a small child, but according to the Scripture writers full of symbolism relating to Jesus being divine and about his destiny to die on a cross. But the gifts were also a signpost in the Scriptures to Jesus himself being a gift – a gift from God to humanity – and they put gifts right at the heart of Christmas as well. Pope Benedict XVI, who died last week and whose funeral took place yesterday, wrote a great deal about the idea of a gift. To many people, a gratuity means a tip, but Pope Benedict used the term in one of his encyclicals, or teaching documents, published in 2009. First he noted that society needs to go beyond having just profit making as a motivation. It needs what he called an ethic of obligation. For example, it’s just to redistribute money for the sake of the common good through taxation. But he also advocated something more radical – something he called the ethic of gratuity. A person gives, he said, not because of any obligation but because it is quite simply good to do so freely. To Pope Benedict this kind of giving imitates God – the God who Christians believe made the universe out of nothing. In creating our world and beyond he gave of himself, simply because it was good to do so. This ethic of gratuity, Benedict observed, can take many forms and it is vital, he said, in countering what he called “a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life”. It was an ethic that the late Pope believed was vital, from how individuals behave – giving of their time, say, through volunteering – to how nations might respond to others in need. In 1945, when Benedict’s own country, Germany, lay in ruins, the need for justice meant that Nazi leaders were tried for their crimes at Nuremberg. But rather than act punitively against the entire German people, the Americans also sought to rebuild German society through resources it provided through the Marshall Plan. According to Pope Benedict, society is at its best not just because of rights and duties but through efforts like that. Justice, he said, prompts a person to give to another what should be rightfully his. But gratuity – in other words, love freely given – means to give to the other what is mine.