How Much Should I Give?

Providing guidance for people’s participation in the Capital and Endowment Campaign for the Diocese of Dallas is a most difficult proposition. This is not limited to people who are looking for guidance that will allow them to make a minimal contribution. The committed Catholic might be ready to make an offering but is simply unsure. Is it merely a matter of math or are there deeper spiritual principals involved?

The first and most obvious of principals is that stewardship choices have an impact on our relationship with God. This may be of no great surprise. It usually is the obvious that is most often overlooked.
Matthew records Jesus’s teaching:

“No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. (Mat 6:24-6:34 NAB)

Do we have the courage to depend on God? Are we ready to follow in the way that he teaches? Much of the fear concerning this is practical. There are people in need and God has placed them in our path. Our response is difficult to escape.

If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1John 4:20-21 NAB)

One of the great challenges for a Catholic today is simple: raw materialism. It involves filling our life with things. This can be done at every income level. An organized and committed stewardship resolution (or plan) keeps that materialism in check. For example, giving at a level that challenges us helps us to detach from our love of money and financial success. To fall into this trap is sometimes irreversible.

Ultimately it is the cross that defines our response to any challenge to give. It was there that our Lord taught the world how to deal with materialism. He showed us how to answer the question of “how much?” One day it will be obvious that our negotiations concerning this will be at an end. By then, we shall have learned how to give or not. The amount will be inspired by the Lord whose decision to give was motivated by his love for us. Undoubtedly it involves a leap of faith, falling into the Father’s merciful arms.

The Ascension and Pentecost

The close of the Easter season is composed of a number of “markers” in time.  First there is the Feast of the Ascension, which according to ancient calendars is forty days after Easter.  For reasons of pastoral necessity the feast day has been transferred to the Sunday following Ascension Day.  In order to thoroughly confuse, Ascension follows Ascension.  This year Ascension is May 12.  It is a Sunday and the thinking is that more people will be sure to observe the feast if it is on a Sunday.  The information concerning the meaning of the feast comes mainly from the Acts of the Apostles and a brief mention in the Gospel of Mark. 

While the work of redemption continues it is primarily accomplished through the Church.

“He said to them, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:15-16 NAB)

Pentecost is more colorful scene.  The “coming down” of the Holy Spirit is accompanied by signs, tongues of fire, wind and a loud noise.  The disciples are able to speak different languages and the experienced of spiritual ecstasy (joy) is a feature of the life of the Church.  The word “Pentecost” refers to the “fiftieth day,” fifty days after Easter.  This was first harvest festival of the new year with the tithe of the land was first brought to the lord in the New Year.  At about the time of Christ, the Jewish feast of Pentecost also included a reference to Moses and the celebration of the giving of the law to Moses and God’s People. With the coming of the Holy Spirit given to the Church, we begin the celebration of the new law, the Law of the Spirit.

Honduras Mission Update

One of the principals that drive the missionary efforts of the church is education.  In consideration of how to proceed we believe that education is indispensable.  In cases of extreme poverty, such as we experience in Honduras and even in parts of the United States, education is a necessary door out of poverty. Following that principal we are making a huge commitment to build a school in Honduras.  It has been slow to get started but we hope that we will be able to proceed within a few months.  The first stop is to obtain land.  Please pray for this project, for its success and the success of all our missionary efforts.

Forgiveness

There are many reasons to pursue forgiveness in our relationships. I say “our relationships” because the need for forgiveness seems greatest among friends and relatives. Sometimes there is a sense of indignation that deepens the grip we have on our anger to the degree that there seems to be no hope for reconciliation. We make things worse and feel completely justified.

Jesus had much to say about forgiveness. A call for forgiveness is embedded in the most popular prayer ever placed on the lips of those who pursue God’s help:

Our Father who art in Heaven,

Hallowed be thy name;

Thy kingdom come

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us;

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

There is little question that the forgiveness being spoken of in the prayer is conditional. In other words, God will forgive us if we in turn will forgive others. We tend to separate the two acts of forgiveness in the prayer. On one hand we seek God’s
forgiveness and on the other we are urged to forgive others of their offenses committed against us. What limit is there to this?

Accidental infractions are heroically easy to forgive, but the bigger things, well, as we feel in the right so we may believe that gives us permission to hold onto our anger. We remember Jesus words to Peter in response to his question:

Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.” (Luke 17:2-4 NAB)

Of course the greatest moment of teaching comes to us from the cross in a moment of unimaginable grace. Jesus has done everything to prepare his disciples for this moment. All the miracles witness to their carrying this eternally in their hearts. They could hear the good thief ask for pardon and receive it, the impossible task in the hands of the author of peace and forgiveness. How many times, almost every day, do we turn away from someone who is a brother, a sister and we do not forgive them? We wonder why we feel cheated of the grace and love that mercy bring. If we do not forgive, we will not be forgiven.

The Bishop As Teacher

A few weeks ago we had a pleasant surprise.  I knew about it in advance but only a handful of our people knew.  The “secrecy” was at the request of the Bishop.  He was our surprise visitor and he did not want to be a distraction from the normal Sunday routine.  It was Divine Mercy Sunday and that commanded our attention.  It is, however, impossible to look the other way when the Bishop comes to visit.

So, what is it about, this “apostolic man” that commands so much attention?  Some would claim that it is an ordinary charism, a sort of administrative excellence that has called him to a position of higher authority.  But it has to be more than that.  Charisms are not ordinary.  By nature they are among the spiritual gifts and unusual. 

While the Bishop is called to a life of administering the temporal affairs of a diocese there are spiritual duties that benefit the whole Church.  First, the Bishop is a teacher.  We might imagine that this involves a chalk board and a lecture hall.  In fact it is not merely the employment of modern teaching tools that makes a Bishop a teacher (even though the Bishop has an excellent blog.)  The goal includes more than this.  It is also directed at protecting the faith.  He is to guard the purity of Catholic doctrine.  Since every Bishop has this task it is the voice of the Holy Father, the Pope that keeps the common voice clear.  As well, the Bishop has the awesome task of teaching this faith to every member of the Diocese.  Obviously, this is something that is delegated, but not completely.

In exercising their duty of teaching-which is conspicuous among the principal duties of bishops-they should announce the Gospel of Christ to men, calling them to a faith in the power of the Spirit or confirming them in a living faith. They should expound the whole mystery of Christ to them, namely, those truths the ignorance of which is ignorance of Christ. At the same time they should point out the divinely revealed way to give glory to God and thereby to attain to eternal happiness. (Christus Dominus, Decree Concerning the Pastoral Office of Bishops, 2,12)

The Bishop is to guard the morals of those placed in his charge.  This means that he is to see that the people live a disciplined, orderly life and that they celebrate the sacraments properly.  We look to the Bishop, his cathedral church, to see how we are to live.  As well, the Bishop is to live in his diocese and to visit the parishes regularly.

The peace of the Diocese is greatly dependent on the teaching skill of the Bishop.  How wonderful it is to see the fruit of his work.

"Wheresoever, the bishop appears, there let the people be, even as wheresoever Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."  Ignatius of Antioch, From the Letter to the Church at Smyrna.

Money and the Passion

It would not be an accurate assessment of the role of money to deem it simply evil.  The proper ownership of property is something attested to by Scripture.  There are times when this is dramatic and emotional.  Once, Jesus instructed Peter to catch a fish and take from its mouth two coins.  With this, Peter would be able to pay the temple tax, something that every male in Judea was responsible to do:

As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were overwhelmed with grief. When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?” “Yes,” he said. When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?” When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt. But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you.” (Mat 17:22-27)

This may seem like merely an odd story, but look at it from a different vantage point.  Peter had, according to his own admission, given up all that he had.  His little fishing business was a respectable enterprise and one that proved the joyful struggle of his ownership of a small business.  To take away from this was not a relief.  He has provided for his family, though there is little said in the New Testament concerning this.

The little passage above reminds us that the honorable payment of a debt was something of concern to Peter. The fact that Jesus pays the debt through this miraculous event should be seen as containing the affection of Jesus for Peter.  Some have seen this as exempting some from the obligation of work, but that is something of a stretch.  Jesus could have easily said that work is a necessary evil, but even that makes little sense.  The fact that Jesus’ contemporaries knew him as a carpenter’s son gave a higher honor to work.

There is, of course, a problem.  Stretching back to the origin in the Garden of Eden, man has struggled with the sin of avarice -- the greed that springs from an extremely disordered desire for money.  We can easily see Adam’s sin as being a desire for power over his circumstances.  And then, in another Garden, we see another contest for the heart of Man.  As Jesus prayed, his disciples slept, not knowing that while they took their ease, a battle raged for the soul of Judas.
Thirty pieces of silver was all it took to send the innocent Savior to the gallows.  Was it worth thirty coins -- about four months of a skilled laborers’ wages?  My father used to tell me that the worse thing about money is that it burns a hole in your pocket and then it’s gone, with nothing to show for ever having had it.

Of course there is a sadness about Judas.  The story in the Bible presents him rather matter-of-factly.  He returns the money that he has already lost, before he brings it back.  For in the perpetual darkness of his soul, these coins found a familiar home.  No matter how we try to follow the twists and turns of a sin-sick soul, we end up in the same evil place.

So is everything lost?  Of course not!  The choices are so numerous that we cannot count them.  It is like wading across a swift river.  If you know the familiar placement of the rocks, you can accomplish getting to the other side.  Among everything that can be done to bring a sinner home, the most important is “right desire.”  It is the wanting to.  Remember the prodigal son?  It was at the point of remembering home that he turned around and began the slow and gradual ascent to the Father who awaited him with open arms.

We stand on the edge of the scene watching the son.  He stops from time to time and squints his eyes to see if he can see the Father.  He sits seemingly exhausted, and then he stands up, looks in our direction and hears the urging to return home to the Father’s house: “Throw the coins away.  Give them to the poor, and follow … me.”

Almsgiving

One of the three pillars of Lent is giving alms. This along with prayer and fasting constitutes the summary of our activity during this season. Of course, there are other things that constitute our focus. Confessing our sins, for example is premiere. Reaching out to those who long for our company, and many other such activities are all certainly part of the activity of the season. The giving of alms is highly praised in both the Old and the New Testament.

If one of your kindred is in need in any community in the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand against your kin who is in need. Instead, you shall freely open your hand and generously lend what suffices to meet that need.  (Deuteronomy 15:7-8 NAB)

Here we can see one example of an ageless principal to be found everywhere in the Bible. The Israelites were to care for those who were poor. It was only fair that they would do so, since God was merciful to them. We should consider this carefully since it is a principal of justice and fairness. God will make firm what is just. We can see this in the word, “eleemosynary”. Its origin is in the description of a king, or some powerful person, who bends down to help someone in need. God has done this for us and we should follow his example to do the same. Jesus makes it a law, a rather dramatic law concerning the powerful helping the less than powerful:

Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you…”  (Matthew 5:41-44 NAB)

The account of the rich young man is quite to the point:

Now someone approached him and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother’; and ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” The young man said to him, “All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.  (Matthew 19:16-22 NAB)

I will pass on a little story that parallels this scene in Matthew’s Gospel. I am completely unsure of the truthfulness of this story and I probably should not pass it on, but I will … with the idea that someone may recognize it and prove it true … or false. We all know of the scene at the crucifixion of the rich young man who went away sad because his riches blinded him to the truth. Well as the story goes, the rich young man suffered a turn of fate in which he lost everything, including his wife and his family. The same thing happened to Job, who lost everything.

This got worse for the rich young man who turned to crime to survive. Once, there was an altercation in a bar that he frequented. There was a flash of steel and soon a capital offense could be added to his list of woes. As he lay in his jail cell awaiting execution for his crimes, he began to reminisce about the sad progression of events. Jesus had given him the promise of eternal life; all he needed to do was to follow Jesus. What greatness he could have enjoyed. The outcome of a person’s life cannot be predicted, save that to follow Jesus is in every way the satisfaction of the goal of our life.

Since every Christian story has a good ending this should as well. As the rich young man was motionless on his cross he heard a familiar voice. The mellow reassuring voice of Jesus could be made out amidst the taunts of the crowd and the moan of the two criminals. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus never forgets us or abandons us. “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Lent / Pope Benedict Resigns

Lent

The season of Lent has a past full of twists and turns.  Even in our time Lent is growing and changing.  This is partly because of the focus on those preparing for Baptism.  The Church has selected for them a noble manner for the process of conversion and of preparing for their Baptism, a preparation that occurs over many weeks.

Equally, there is a dramatic focus on our own continuing conversion.  Since Vatican II there has been a concern for the stability of the Church.  Some point to a deep need incumbent on the whole church to find our way back to the arms of the Church.  This expresses itself in a vision of the soul journeying to God.  The Prodigal Son is, of course, the perfect symbol of this movement during the season of Lent.  It is truly a season of the grace of conversion.  It might be helpful to look at this “moment of grace” again.  There is an incredible occurrence associated directly to the meaning of Lent: reconciliation.  The various names of the sacrament help us to see the richness of this celebration.  It is called “penance” to remind us that change is part of the response we have.  It is the human condition to need this change, to grow to improve.  Usually we are assigned a penance that includes saying a particular prayer.  It reminds us that God is the source of the healing that we seek in this sacrament. It is called “confession” because this is our part in the celebration of the sacrament.  However, even this is a good that we must attribute to God.  We should be cautious about this, cautious enough to know that all good has its origin in God.  Our proper response is to praise him and to thank him for rescuing us from our sins.

Pope Benedict Resigns

The news is full of the Catholic Church today.  Pope Benedict has announced that he will resign at the end of February.  We should rightly be sad that his ministry will conclude this way, with a broken and tired Bishop.  On the other hand, no matter what the news has to say, we have a secret joy that the Bishop has known suffering and been called to spend the last days in a different way.  Perhaps we will all be surprised to what God may be calling Benedict and the whole Catholic Church.  Even in the midst of the life of a tired Pope we can all applaud his whole life’s work.  What a magnificent writer, shepherd, Father.

It is true that a Pope belongs to the whole world, so the whole world has a right to make a comment on his resignation.  Some of those who wrongly imagine that they have something to say should at least be a little hesitant.  If the house was on fire and my father pulled me from the flames, who would not,say that my father was very brave?

Holy Father, Your Excellency, so many times you have pulled me from the fire, given me a new understanding and made me proud to be a Catholic.  Thank you.  My offer still stands.  I would love to teach you how to fly fish.